
Class __ 
Book 



COF^CRIGHT DEPOStC 



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m^ssmsmi 


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H^wVpil 


THROUGH 


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COLON lAL 
DOORWAYS 


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BY 
ANNEHOLLINGSWOPTH 
'^WHARTON 


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PHILADELPHiA 

J.B.LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

MDCCCXCIII 


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^1893 






CoPYUlrVHT. 1S93, 
liV 

J. II. l.ippiNCOTT Company. 



Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 



TO THE MEMORY OF 

MARGARET N. CARTER, 

WHOSE LIVING AND LOVING PRESENCE WAS AN IN- 
SPIRATION DURING THE PREPARATION OF THESE 
CHAPTERS, AND WHOSE SKETCHES ARE 
AMONG THOSE THAT ADORN ITS PAGES, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 

IS 



I ^ t 




The revival of interest in Colonial and 
Revolutionary times has become a marked 
feature of the life of to-day. Its mani- 
festations are to be found in the litera- 
ture which has grown up around these 
periods, and in the painstaking individual 
research being made among documents 
.and records of the past with genealogical 
and historical intent. 

Not only has a desire been shown to 
learn more of the great events of the last 
century, but with it has come an altogether 
natural curiosity to gain some insight into 
the social and domestic life of Colonial 
days. To read of councils, congresses, 
and battles is not enough : men and women 
wish to know something more intimate 

3 



4 PREFACE, 

and personal of the life of the past, of how 
their ancestors lived and loved as well of 
how they wrought, suffered, and died. 

With some thought of gratifying this de- 
sire, by sounding the heavy brass knocker, 
and inviting the reader to enter with us 
through the broad doorways of some Colo- 
nial homes into the hospitable life within, 
have these pages been written. 

For original material placed at my dis- 
posal, in the form of letters and manuscripts, 
I am indebted to numerous friends, among 
these to Mrs. Oliver Hopkinson, the Misses 
Sharpies, Miss Anna E. Peale, Miss F. C. 
Logan, Mrs. Edward Wetherill, Mr. C. R. 
Hildeburn, and Mr. Edward Shippen. 

To the Editors of the Atlantic Monthly, 
the Lippincotf s Magasiiic, and the Phila- 
delphia Ledger and Times, I wish to ex- 
press my appreciation of their courtesy in 
allowing me to use in some of these chap- 
ters material to which they first gave place 
in their columns. 

A. H. W. 

Philadelphi.'\, March, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 



THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS 7 

THE MESCHIANZA 23 

NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS 65 

THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY ... 97 

THE WISTAR PARTIES I47 

A BUNDLE OF. OLD LOVE LETTERS 1 77 

THE PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES . . . I97 




^|HE historian of the past has, as a rule, 
^ yj been pleased to treat with dignified 
silence the lighter side of Colonial life, 
allowing the procession of noble men and 
fair women to sweep on, grand, stately, 
and imposing, but lacking the softer touches 
that belong to social and domestic life. 
So much has been written and said of the 
stern virtues of the fathers and mothers 
of the Republic, and of their sacrifices, 
privations, and heroism, that we of this 
generation would be in danger of regard- 
ing them as types of excellence to be placed 
upon pedestals, rather than as men and 
women to be loved with human affection, 
were it not for some old letter, or diary, or 
anecdote that floats down to us from the 
past, revealing the touch of nature that 
makes them our kinsfolk by the bond of 

7 



8 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

sympathy and interest, of taste and habit, 
as well as by that of blood. 

The dignified Washington becomes to 
us a more approachable personality when, 
in a letter written by Mrs. John M. Bowers, 
we read that when she was a child of six 
he dandled her on his knee and sang to 
her about "the old, old man and the old, 
old woman who lived in the vinegar-bottle 
together," or when we come across a face- 
tious letter of his own in which the general 
tells how his cook was " sometimes minded 
to cut a figure," notably, when ladies were 
entertained at camp, and would, on such 
occasions, add to the ordinary roast and 
greens a beefsteak pie or a dish of crabs, 
which left only six feet of space between 
the different dishes instead of twelve ; or 
again, when General Greene writes from 
Middlebrook, " We had a little dance at 
my quarters. His Excellency and Mrs. 
Greene danced upwards of three hours 
without once sitting down. Upon the 
whole we had a pretty little frisk." 

We are not accustomed to a'ssociate 
minuets and " pretty frisks" with the stern 



THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 9 

realities of Revolutionary days, yet as 
brief mention of them comes down to us, 
they serve to light up the background of 
that rugged picture, as when Miss Sally 
Wister tells, in her sprightly journal, of the 
tricks played by herself and a bevy of gay 
girls upon the young officers quartered in 
the old Foulke mansion, at Penllyn, soon 
after the battle of Brandywine. Miss 
Wister's confidences are addressed to Miss 
Deborah Norris, afterwards the learned 
Mrs. George Logan, and the principal 
actors in the century-old drama are the 
liv^ely Miss Sally, who dubs herself " Thy 
smart journalizer," and Major Stoddert 
from Maryland, who in the first scenes plays 
a role somewhat similar to that of Young 
Marlow, but later develops attractions of 
mind and character that Miss Sally finds 
simply irresistible. She considers him 
both " good natur'd and good humor'd," 
and evinces a fine discrimination in de- 
fining the application of these terms, which 
shows that a Quaker maiden in love may 
still retain a modicum of the clear-headed- 
ness which is one of the distinguishing 



lO THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

characteristics of her sect. The cousinly- 
allusions to " chicken-hearted Licldy" — 
Miss Liddy Foulke, later known as Mrs, 
John Spencer — and her numerous admirers 
are very interesting. When Miss Sally, 
who is evidently reducing the heart of the 
gallant major to " ashes of Sodom," naively 
remarks, a propos of Liddy's conquests, 
" When will Sally's admirers appear ? Ah ! 
that, indeed. Why, Sally has not charms 
sufficient to pierce the heart of a soldier. 
But still I won't despair. Who knows 
what mischief I yet may do ?" we feel that 
maidens' hearts in 1777 were made on 
much the same plan that they are now- 
adays, and that even to so rare a confi- 
dante as Miss Deborah Norris the whole 
was not revealed. 

Through such old chroniclers or letter- 
writers we sometimes meet the great ladies 
of the past at ball or dinner, or, better 
still, in the informal intercourse of their 
own homes, and catch glimpses of their 
husbands and lovers, the warriors, states- 
men, and philosophers of the time, at some 
social club, like the Hasty Pudding of 



THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. I I 

Cambridge, the State in Scliuylkill or tlie 
Wistar Parties of Pliiladelphia, or the 
Tuesday Club and the Delphian in Balti- 
more. Meeting them thus, enjoying witti- 
cisms and good cheer in one another's 
excellent company, we feel a closer bond 
between their life and our own than if they 
were always presented to us in public cere- 
monial or with pen and folio in hand. 
When we read of Judge Peters crying 
out good-humoredly, as he pushed his 
way between a fat and a slim man who 
blocked up a doorway, " Here I go through 
thick and thin ;" or when we think of the 
signers of the Declaration, gathered to- 
gether in the old State House on that mem- 
orable July day of i "JJ^, illuminating the so- 
lemnity of the occasion by jokes, even as 
grim ones as those of Hancock and Frank- 
lin and Gerry, we are conscious of a sense 
of comradeship inspired more by the mirth 
and bonJioinie than by the heroism of these 
men, who labored yesterday that we might 
laugh to-day. The great John Adams, 
who with all his greatness was not a uni- 
versal favorite among his contemporaries. 



12 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

comes down to us irradiated with a nimbus 
of amiability, in a picture that his wife 
draws of him, submitting to be driven 
about the room with a willow stick by one 
of his small grandchildren ; and when Mrs. 
Bache begs her " dear papa" not to repri- 
mand her so severely for desiring a little 
finery, in which to appear at the Ambas- 
sador's and when she " goes abroad with 
the Washingtons," because he is the last 
person to wish to see her " dressed with 
singularity, or in a way that will not do 
credit to her father and her husband," we 
can fancy Dr. Franklin's grave features 
relaxing in a smile over the daughter's 
diplomacy, inherited from no stranger. 
The wedding of President Madison to the 
pretty Widow Todd seems more real to 
us when we learn from eye-witnesses of 
the various festivities that illuminated the 
occasion, and of how the girls vied with 
one another in obtaining mementos of the 
evening, cutting in bits the Mechlin lace 
that adorned the groom's delicate shirt- 
ruffles, and showering the happy pair with 
rice when they drove off to Montpelier, 



THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 1 3 

old Mr. Madison's estate in Virginia. 
Through it all, we can hear Mrs. Wash- 
ington's earnest voice assuring " Dolly" 
that she and General Washington approve 
of the match, and that even if Mr. Madison 
is twenty years older than herself, he will 
still make her a good husband. That this 
sensible advice from the stately matron 
should have made the girl-widow blush 
and run away does not surprise us, for, 
while acknowledging to an immense respect 
for Mrs. Washington, in consequence not 
only of her position, but of the dignity 
and serenity of her character, we are al- 
ways conscious of a feeling of restraint in 
her presence, which she makes no effort 
to overcome by word or smile. We can- 
not imagine ourselves spending a pleasant 
evening with her, discussing events of the 
day, or the last engagement or ball, as we 
can with Mrs. John Adams, Mrs. John 
Jay, or sprightly Mrs. Bache. We confess 
to the same emotions with regard to Mrs. 
Robert Morris, whose character stands 
out, like that of her intimate friend Mrs. 
Washington, surrounded by a halo of ex- 
2 



14 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

cellence. Is this the fault of these worthy- 
ladies, or is it that of their biographers, 
who, in presenting them to the world with 
all the lofty virtues of Roman matrons, 
have added no lighter touches to their 
pictures ? In vain we search for some 
shred of gayety, or mirth, or enthusiasm, 
on their part, and in sheer desperation 
back out of their presence with a stately 
courtesy, and take refuge with Rebecca 
Franks, or Sally Wister, or Eliza South- 
gate, with whom we are always sure of 
passing a merry half-hour. Nor is it 
frivolity and merry-making that we look 
for in the records of the past : it is life, 
with its high hopes and homely cares, its 
simple pleasures and small gayeties, that 
served to relieve the tension of earnest 
endeavor needed to accomplish a great and 
difficult task. Mrs. Adams's letters about 
her children, her household economies, and 
her experiments in farming are almost as 
interesting as those written from abroad, 
because she approaches all subjects, even 
the most commonplace, with a buoyant 
spirit and playful fancy. To her husband, 



THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS, 1 5 

during one of his long absences from 
home, she writes, " I am a mortal enemy 
to anything but a cheerful countenance 
and a merry heart, which, Solomon tells 
us, does good like medicine." And again, 
" I could give you a long list of domestic 
affairs, but they would only serve to em- 
barrass you and in noways reliev^e me. 
All domestic pleasures are absorbed in 
the great and important duty you owe 
your country, ' for our country is, as it 
were, a secondary god, and the first and 
greatest parent. It is to be preferred to 
parents, wives, children, friends, and all 
things, — the gods only excepted.' " It is 
not strange that to such a wife John Adams 
should have written, " By the accounts in 
your last letter, it seems the women in 
Boston begin to think themselves able to 
serve their country. What a pity it is that 
our generals in the northern districts had 
not Aspasias to their wives ! I believe the 
two Howes have not very great women 
for wives. If they had, we should suffer 
more from their exertions than we do. 
This is our good fortune. A woman of 



l6 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

sense would not let her husband spend five 
weeks at sea in such a season of the year. 
A smart wife would have put Howe in pos- 
session of Philadelphia a long time ago." 
It is evident that Mr. Adams did not need" 
to be won over to any modern theories 
with regard to the higher education of 
women, and, as a relief to the sterner side 
of the picture, we find the wife who penned 
such wise and inspiriting words to her hus- 
band entering on other occasions with the 
delight of a Jiiondaine into a court or re- 
publican function, describing the gowns of 
the women, their faces and their manners, 
with the minuteness and accuracy of a 
Parisian. Was there ever anything written 
more spirited than Mrs. Adams's descrip- 
tion of Madame Helvetius at Passy, throw- 
ing her arms about the neck of ce cJicr 
Frank/ill ? or her picture of Queen Char- 
lotte and the royal princesses, for whom her 
admiration was of the scantest ? With far 
different touches was it her pleasure to 
describe some of the American beauties 
abroad, for Mrs. Adams was always a true 
daughter of New England, and we can 



THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 1/ 

read between the lines when she writes of 
Madame Helvetius's singular manners, " I 
should have been greatly astonished at 
this conduct if the good Doctor [Franklin] 
had not told me that in this lady I should 
see a genuine Frenchwoman, wholly free 
from affectation or stiffness of behavior." * 
Pleasant it is, and not wholly unprofitable 
to the student of life and manners, to look 
into the family room of some Colonial 
mansion, to hear girlish laughter and rail- 
lery about balls and beaux in one corner, 
while in another the father of the family 
writes of his aspirations for the nation in 
which his hopes for his children are bound 
up, and the mother, looking over his 
shoulder, sympathizes with his patriotic 
and fatherly ambitions, while she turns 
over in her brain, for the hundredth time, 
the important question of how she and 
Nancy are to make a respectable ap- 
pearance at the next Assembly ball, when 
silks, laces, and feathers are so very dear, — 
worth their weight in gold, as Mrs. Bache 

* Letters of Mrs. John .\dams, p. 253. 
b 2* 



V 



l8 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

tells U.S. It is such touches of life as these 
that we find in the diaries of Sarah Eve, 
Avho was living in Philadelphia in 1772, of 
Eliza Southgate of Scarborough, and of 
Hannah Drinker; in Mrs. Grant's pictures 
of New York and Albany life, in which 
Madame Philip Schuyler is the central fig- 
ure ; or in such letters as those of Thomas 
Jefferson to his family, of Mrs. Bache, 
Miss Franks, Lady Cathcart, and Mrs. 
John Morgan. The latter gives us charm- 
ing glimpses of Cambridge society in 1776, 
and tells of dinners, tea-drinkings, and re- ', 
views in company with the Mifflins, Rober-' 
deaus, and others, of handsome officers 
and pretty girls. Of one of the latter 
she speaks, in a letter to her mother, in 
a manner which reveals her own loveli- 
ness of character quite as clearly as it does 
the external charms of the beauty whom 
all the world and her own husband ad- 
mire. " The one that drew every one's 
attention," she writes, " was the famous 
Jersey beauty, Miss Keyes, who is now on 
a visit to Mr. Roberdeau. She may justly 
be said to be fairest where thousands are 



THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. I9 

fair. I have had an opportunity of seeing 
her, and think her a most beautiful creature, 
and what makes her still more engaging 
is her not betraying the least consciousness 
of her own perfections. I am, it seems, a 
most violent favorite with her ; she is to 
dine here to-morrow. You will wonder, 
perhaps, how this great intimacy took 
place, but you must know she has been in- 
disposed since her coming to town, and Dr. 
Morgan had the honor of attending her, — 
you know what an admirer of beauty he 
is ; the rest followed, of course." 

In a different vein, but no less piquant, 
are Lady Cathcart's remarks on London 
personages and functions, in the midst of 
which her thoughts fly back to her relatives 
and friends in America. One moment 
she is describing the " Queen's Birthnight 
Ball," and the next is sending Mrs. Jauncey 
a picture of her son with " Six Curies of a 
Side," or commenting upon Betty Ship- 
ton's marriage to Major Giles, adding, " I 
am sure I never believed her, last winter, 
when she used to talk so much about him." 

There being many old letters and diaries 



20 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

still unread and unpublished, it seems a 
task not unworthy of the later historian 
to gather together such records, in order 
to present to this generation more charac- 
teristic pictures of their grandfathers and 
grandmothers, drawn with a freer hand 
and touched with the familiar light of 
every-day intercourse. One young girl 
of the present time was strongly attracted 
towards her own great-grandmother by 
reading a letter written by her to her 
mother in Newport, asking her to send 
her from thence " a sprigged muslin petti- 
coat, and the making of an apron such 
as all the girls are wearing." A rather 
more modest request, this, than that of 
Miss Eliza Southgate, who begged her 
mother for five dollars with which to pur- 
chase a wig for the next Assembly, because 
Eleanor Coffin had one, and it was quite 
impossible " to dress her hair stylish with- 
out it." Placed thus in touch with her 
great-grandmother's longings and aspira- 
tions, which flowed in the same frivolous 
channel as her own, this young descendant 
suddenly realized that they two were of 



THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 21 

one flesh and blood, and gathering and 
piecing together all that could be learned 
from older members of the family of this 
lady of the last century, she has become 
the heroine of romance so thrilling and so 
sweet, that the girl of to-day may be said 
to entertain for her unknown ancestress a 
more than ordinary affection. 

The records that have come down to us 
are, after all, only a few out of the great 
mass written. Many, perhaps equally in- 
teresting, have in some garret fallen a prey 
to mould, decay, and the book-lizard ; or 
have found their way to the fireplace, im- 
pelled thither by some family iconoclast 
possessed with a rage for clearing up ; or, 
still more ignoble fate, have been torn up 
for curl-papers ! A narrator of veracity 
tells how a bevy of gay young girls, 
gathered together in the roomy old Hop- 
kinson house in Bordentown, appropriated 
some letters found in the garret to this 
purpose, and lighting on some interesting 
passages, amused themselves by reading 
them aloud at what Macaulay names the 
" curling hour." Reports of these noc- 



22 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

turnal revels being carried down-stairs, a 
member of the family interested herself 
in the preservation of the letters, which 
proved an historical treasure-trove. Such 
treasure-troves will be less likely to be 
discovered as the years go on, and those 
who would find love-letters like Esther 
Wynn's, under the cellar stairs, had better 
set about looking for them before mould 
and dampness have utterly obliterated the 
characters traced in the lonij-ago. 



-i- 





'Mars, conquest phimed, the Cyfirian gtieen disarms ; 
And victors, vanquished, yield to Beauty's charms. 
Here then the laurel, here the palm ive yield, 
And all the trophies of the tilted field ; ' 
Here Whites and Blacks, with blended homage , pay 
To each device the honors of tlie day. 
Hard were the task and impious to decide, 
Wliere all are fairest, which the fairer side. 
Enough for us if by such sports ive strove 
To grace this feast of military love 
And, joining in the ivish of every heart. 
Honor' d the friend and leader ere ive part." 

From tlie Gentleman s Magazine of lyyS. 



If we could by any means turn back, for 
a moment, to certain May days more than 
a hundred years ago, and enter one of the 
stately old Philadelphia mansions in the 
eastern portion of our city, then the court 
end of the town, what a gay scene would 
meet our eyes ! Fair ladies gathered in 
the spacious rooms, in their quaint but 

23 



1/ 



24 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

becoming old-time dress, bending over 
brocades, laces, and ribbons, busied in 
consulting upon and improvising ravishing 
costumes, in which to grace the splendid 
fete to be given to General Sir William 
Howe, by the officers of the British army, 
previous to his departure for England. 
This army then held possession of Penn's 
" faire greene country towne," and had 
been busy during the past winter, in lieu 
of more warlike employment, in intro- 
ducing among its inhabitants many of the 
amusements, follies, and vices of Old World 
courts. The Quaker City had, at the pleas- 
ure of her conqueror, doffed her sober 
drab and appeared in festal array ; for, 
like the Babylonian victors of old, they 
that wasted her required of her mirth. 
The best that the city afforded was at the 
disposal of the enemy, who seem to have 
spent their days in feasting and merry- 
making, while Washington and his army 
endured all the hardships of the severe 
winter of I'j'j'j-'jZ upon the bleak hill- 
sides of Valley Forge. Dancing assem- 
blies, theatrical entertainments, and various 



THE MESCHIANZA. 2$ 

gayeties marked the advent of the British 
in Philadelphia, all of which formed a 
fitting prelude to the full-blown glories of 
the Meschianza, which burst upon the 
admiring inhabitants on that last-century 
May day. 

It must be remembered, in looking back 
upon these times, that most of our aristo- 
cratic citizens were descended from old 
Enghsh stock, and, with an inherent loyalty 
to the monarchy under which they had 
prospered, were still content to avow them- 
selves subjects of King George, or, as 
Graydon puts it, " stuck to their ease and 
Madeira," declaring themselves neutral, 
which rendered the lessons taught by these 
gay, pleasure-laving British officers easy 
ones, learned with few grimaces. Thus, 
although there were many sober Friends 
who cast indignant side-glances at the 
elaborate preparations in progress for this 
brilliant /eU, and many hearts which beat 
in sympathy with the patriot cause and 
could ill brook the thought of such fri- 
volity in the midst of the stern realities of 
war, there was still a large class which 
B 3 



26 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

entered with spirit into a festivity which 
was openly denounced by British journals 
of the day as ill-timed and absurd, given, 
as it was, in honor of a commander whose 
errors had well-nigh cost him his cause, 
and who was severely censured for these 
months of inactivity and trifling which his 
officers now proceeded to commemorate. 
Howe was, notwithstanding his faults and 
failures, sincerely beloved by his officers, 
who resolved to give him this entertain- 
ment that, as they phrased it, their " sen- 
timents might be more universally and 
unequivocally known." 

Major Andre, who took a leading part 
in the preparations for the Meschianza, 
composed some verses in Sir William's 
praise, to be repeated during the pageant ; 
but, with a modesty that has not always 
been attributed to him, he set them aside. 
The last stanza of this strain proves to us 
how readily this child of monarchy, poet 
though he was, had learned to cry, " The 
King is dead. Long live the King !" 
Howe being at this very time superseded 
by Clinton, Andre writes : 



THE MESCHIANZA. 2/ 

" On Hudson's banks the sure presage we read, — 
Of other triumphs to our arms decreed : 
Nor fear but equal lionors shall repay 
Each hardy deed where Clinton leads the way." 

Andre indulged in some bold flights of 
fancy in these verses, such as the follow- 
ing : 

" Veterans appeared who never knew to yield 
When Howe and glory led them to the field." 

Which are in sharp contrast with the effu- 
sions of a Jerseyman of the time, who, 
with more truth and less sentiment, wrote : 

*' Threat'ning to drive us from the hill, 

Sir William marched to attack our men. 
But finding that we all stood still, 

Sir William he — marched back again." 

The day appointed for the Meschianza 
was the i8th of May. Cards of invitation 
were sent out and tickets of admission 
given. The latter are thus described by a 
Whig lady : " On the top is the crest of 
the Howe arms, with vive vale (live and 
farewell). To the sun setting in the sea 
the other motto refers, and bears this trans- 



28 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

lation : ' He shines as he sets, but shall 
rise again more luminous.' General Howe 
being- recalled is the setting sun ; while 
ploughing the ocean he is obscured, but 
shall, on his return, and giving an account 
of his heroic deeds, rise again with re- 
doubled lustre. The wreath of laurel 
encompassing the whole, encircling the 
arms, completes, I think, the burlesque." 

The names by which this fete is known, 
Meschianza and Mischianza, are derived 
from two Italian words, — inesccrc, to mix, 
and niiscJiiarc, to mingle. Thus the enter- 
tainment, so varied in its nature, has been 
named a mixture and a medley with equal 
propriety. We have adopted the spelling 
of the original invitations, one of which 
lies before us, and reads thus : 

The Favor of your meeting the Subscribers to the 
Meschianza at Knight's Wharf, near Pool's Bridge, to- 
morrow, at half-past three, is Desired. 

[Signed] Henry Calder. 

Sunday, 17th May. 
Miss Clifton. 

Knight's wharf was at the edge of Green 
Street, in the Northern Liberties ; Poole's 



THE MESCHIANZA. 2g 

bridge crossed Pegg's Run at Front Street, 
and was named after one Poole, a Friend, 
whose mansion lay quite near. 

It is curious to notice that this invitation 
to Miss Eleanor Clifton, whose portrait 
proclaims her one of the beauties of the 
period, is dated but one day in advance of 
the fete, which would lead us to fear that 
this lady was tempted to commit the sin 
of sewing at her ball-dress on a Sunday, 
like that unfortunate damsel of Queen 
Elizabeth's time whom Mrs. Jarley holds 
up as a waxen warning to all Sabbath- 
breakers, had we not good reason to infer 
that a verbal invitation had been given 
long before. 

The preparations for this magnificent 
entertainment, the erection of the numer- 
ous and vast paviHons around the old 
Wharton mansion, and their decoration 
by Andre, Delancey, and all the other 
gallant officers who took part in the affair, 
were doubtless the talk of the town for 
weeks. Yards and yards of painting must 
have been executed by the indefatigable 
Andre, as the ceilings, sides, and decora- 
3* 



30 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS, 

tions of the long pavilions, designed for 
the supper- and ball-rooms, were to a great 
extent the work of his hands. Here he 
used unsparingly the pencil that had made 
its virgin essay on the features of lovely, 
unrequiting Honora Sneyd, lingering, with 
true artistic fervor, over festoons of roses 
and bouquets of drooping flowers. 

The owner of this property was dubbed 
by his contemporaries " Duke Wharton," 
in consequence of the extreme haughtiness 
of his bearing and, it is said, from the fol- 
lowing circumstance : " One winter's day, 
when the sidewalks were rendered danger- 
ously slippery from the accumulated ice 
upon them, Mr. Wharton, while attempting 
to make his usual dignified progress over 
the uncertain footing, was suddenly tripped 
up, and would have measured his length 
upon the pavement, had not a jovial Hi- 
bernian, passing at the moment, stretched 
forth a friendly hand to his aid, crying out, 
' God save my Lord the Duke !' " Another 
amusing passage of compliments, this time 
with Sir William Draper, is related b}' 
Graydon : " Sir William, observing that 



THE MESCHIANZA. 3 1 

Mr. Wharton entered the room hat in 
hand, and remained uncovered, begged, 
as it was contrary to the custom of his 
Society to do so, that the Quaker gentle- 
man would dispense with this unnecessary 
mark of respect. But the ' Duke,' feeling 
his pride piqued at the supposition that he 
would uncover to Sir William or any other 
man, replied, with entire sang-froid, that 
he had uncovered for his own comfort, the 
day being warm, and that whenever he 
found it convenient he would resume his 
hat." These and other stories, all indi- 
cating a pride that seems to have been 
considered commendable in those days, 
repeated with embellishments, doubtless 
added to the merriment of many convivial 
after-dinner gatherings, and passing from 
mouth to mouth, served to establish the 
reputation and title of this old Quaker 
gentleman, whose death occurred more 
than a year previous to the British occu- 
pation of Philadelphia.* The fact that 



* It is pleasant to learn that Mr. Joseph Wharton, the 
owner of Walnut Grove, if proud was also benevolent. 



32 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Walnut Grove was a country-seat, and in 
all probability used by the Wharton family 
only during the summer months, may ac- 
count for the British officers having entire 
possession of the premises in the spring 
of '78, while its size and situation made 
it an appropriate place in which to hold 
their revels. Surrounded by broad lawns 
and lofty trees, situated at some distance 
west of the Delaware River, at what is 
now Fifth Street near Washington Avenue, 
Walnut Grove was then considered quite 
a rural residence. It has long since dis- 
appeared, the encroaching streets of a busy 
city having rendered almost traditional the 
theatre of this gay and brilliant scene, 
although there were those still living, on 
the anniversary of the festival in 1878, who 
recalled the old brick house as it stood in 
Colonial times, and one who slid down the 
balusters of the stairway in boyish frolic, 
with never a thought of all the gay and 
gallant throng which once passed over the 

as we find his name among liberal contributors to one 
of the first Philadelphia almshouses. 



THE MESCHIANZA. 33 

stairs and down the broad hall to the 
sound of music, merry jests, courtly com- 
pliments, and rippling laughter. 

It is said that there were not many 
ladies with the British officers in Phila- 
delphia, most of them having left their 
wives in New York ; so, there being few 
authorities to consult about the prevailing 
fashions at the court of the beautiful Aus- 
trian or the less beautiful Queen Charlotte, 
our young ladies were forced to rely upon 
their own ingenuity in the arrangement of 
their toilets. Those chosen to be knights' 
ladies were assisted by the taste and skill 
of Andre, whose water-color design for 
the costume of the ladies of the Blended 
Rose is still preserved, representing a curi- 
ous combination of Oriental and Parisian 
styles, its flowing tunic over full Turkish 
trousers being topped by the high coiffure 
of the day. Miss Peggy Shippen's por- 
trait * represents her in this head-dress, 
and in a letter written to her in August, 

* This sketch, by Major Andre, is in the possession 
of Mr. Edward Shippen, of Philadelphia. 



34 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

1779, Andre playfully alludes to his mil- 
linery experience gained during prepara- 
tions for the fete : 

" You know the Mesquianza made me a complete mil- 
liner. Should you not have received supplies for your 
fullest efjuipment from that department, I shall be glad 
to enter into the whole details of cap-wire, needles, 
gauze, &c., and, to the best of my abilities, render you 
in these trifles services from which I hope you would 
infer a zeal to be further employed." 

A rash offer, it seems to us, for what 
knight, be he never so bold, would be 
willing to enter into all the intricacies and 
mysteries of a modern feminine toilet ? 
And those of the days of powder, patch, 
and high befeathered coiffure were cer- 
tainly not less bewildering to the minds 
of the uninitiated. 

Although from various sources we learn 
that Andre took an active part in the prep- 
arations for the Meschianza, out of doors 
as well as among laces and silks in fair 
ladies' boudoirs, Mr. Sargent tells us that 
Burgoyne* was the conductor of the ele- 

* " We all know of Burgoyne's surrender, but hardly 
one knows Burgoyne's comedies, and yet there are few 



THE MESCHIANZA. 35 

gant affair, which was on the plan of a 
fete cJiainpetre given by Lord Derby, June, 
1774, on the occasion of Lord Stanley's 
marriage with the Duke of Hamilton's 
daughter. Only about fifty young Phila- 
delphia ladies were present at the Meschi- 
anza ; but if we are to credit history and 
the gossip of the day, the destruction 
wrought by their charms upon the hearts 
of the British officers must have been 
equal to that to have been expected from 
twice their number, for all authorities unite 
in telling us that the ladies of this city were 
justly celebrated for their beauty, of a 
certain grand and noble type. Watson 
says that most of the American gentlemen 
who took part in the Meschianza were 

cleverer or more brilliant, of a second order, tiian 
'The Heiress,' and * Maid of Oaks.' In a letter, dated 
New York, June 2, 1777, he says, • You cannot imagine 
anything half so beautiful as this country. It is im- 
possible to conceive anything so delightful. Lady 
Holland, in spite of her politics, would, I am sure, feel 
for it, if she could see the ruin and desolation we have 
introduced into the most beautiful and, I verily believe, 
happiest part of the universe.' " — World Essays : Wil- 
liam B. Reed, pp. 176, 177. 



36 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

" aged non-combatants," the young men 
of the city being Whigs, and generally, be 
it said to their credit, with Washington's 
army at Valley Forge. 

There seems to be no doubt that a num- 
ber of Whig ladies graced this entertain- 
ment, and one of them, herself, describes 
the affair in glowing colors. What shall we 
say for the erring fair ones ? That they 
were young, beautiful, anxious to see and 
perhaps to be seen. Shall we, standing amid 
the lights and shadows of another century, 
be severe in our judgment upon these fair, 
curious Eves of a hundred years ago ? 
They had read of grand doings among 
court ladies and gentlemen in the exagger- 
ated and stilted romances of the day, until 
their foolish hearts were in an eager flut- 
ter of anticipation and delight. The whole 
town was talking about the projected 
fete ; the young officers were constantly 
passing to and fro busied with the ar- 
rangements ; so grand a sight might 
never again dawn upon the Philadelphia 
world. Thus reasoning, and dropping the 
while a tear for the braves at Valley 



THE MESCHIANZA. 3/ 

Forge, these inconsistent Whig ladies 
yielded. 

From the windows of some dwellings 
belonging to Friends — opposed in principle 
to such scenes of gayety and dissipation — 
eyes as eager as any looked forth upon the 
busy scene of preparation, like doves from 
behind imprisoning bars. Sweet young 
Quakeresses, gentle-eyed as the dove and 
gentle-voiced, that gay land of enchant- 
ment down the river — a seeming Elysium 
— is not for you ! How they must have 
longed to go — sitting by the fireside, like 
so many Cinderellas, watching their happy 
sisters start off bravely attired to the ball ! 
To them, alas ! came no fairy godmother, 
so they reluctantly folded their soft wings 
and stayed at home. 

In a little, old, commonplace-book found 
in a house in Southwark, and now in the 
possession of the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, among extracts from various 
authors — some in English, some in Latin, 
proving the unknown writer to have been 
a person of taste and culture — is a descrip- 
tion of the Meschianza penned by an eye- 
4 



38 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

witness. With the exception of the well- 
known account of the fete given by Major 
Andre in a letter to a friend in England, 
this is the most detailed recital that we 
have encountered. Opening the yellowed 
pages, we read : 



" Agreeable to an invitation of the managers of the 
Meschianza, Dr. M., Mr. F., and myself went up about 
four o'clock in the afternoon, in Mr. F.'s Coach, to 
Knight's wharf, where we found most of the company 
in the Boats. Some of these were on the water in the 
galley with Lord Howe, among them Mrs. Chew, Mrs. 
Hamilton, Mrs. Worrell, Mrs. Coxe, Miss Chew, Miss 
Auchmuty, Miss Redman, Miss Franks, &c.. General 
Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Rawdon, &c. ; and 
General Knyphausen and his attendants were in another 
Galley. We continued waiting on the water for the 
rest of the company near half an Hour, when, a Signal 
being given from the ' Vigilant,' we began to move in 
three divisions, a Galley and ten flatboats in each division. 
In the first was General Knyphausen, &c., in the third 
British and German officers, and in the middle. Lord 
General Howe, &c. — with three Barges, in each of which 
were bands of music playing." 



A lady in Philadelphia at this time who 
attended the Meschianza, although she de- 
clares herself a noted Whig, thus describes 



THE MESCHIANZA. 39 

this portion of the entertainment in a 
letter addressed to Mrs. Colonel Bland, in 
England : 

" On the back of the ticket, you observe, we are to 
attend at Knight's wharf (you remember Pool's bridge 
near Kensington). Thither we accordingly repaired in 
carriages at the appointed hour of three, where we found 
a vast number of boats, barges, and galleys to receive us, 
all adorned with small colors or jacks of different colors. 
On a sign from the ' Vigilant' we all embarked, forming 
lines, with all the music belonging to the army in the 
centre. The ladies interspersed in the different boats 
(the seats of which were covered with green cloth) with 
the red coats, colors flying, music playing, etc., you may 
easily suppose formed a very gay and grand appearance ; 
nor were the shore and houses, lined with spectators, any 
bad object to those in the regatta (the water party so 
called). We were obliged to row gently on account of 
the galley sailing slow. 

" The armed ship — the ' Fanny' — was drawn into the 
stream and decorated in the most beautiful manner with 
the colors of every Court or State streaming ; amidst the 
\/ number, the thirteen stripes waved with as much ele- 
gance, and as gracefully sported with the gentle zephyrs, 
as any of the number. After passing the above ship we 
reached the ' Roebuck,' whose men were all fixed on 
her yards and gave us three cheers as we passed, and as 
soon as we had got to a distance not to be incommoded 
by the smoke she fired a salute and was answered by 
several other vessels in the harbor. At length we reached 
the place of destination (after lying awhile on our oars) 



40 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

opposite the ' Roebuck,' the music playing ' God Save 
the King.' " 

The regatta which headed the pro- 
gramme of the Meschianza was suggested 
by a similar pageant on the Thames, June 
23, 1775, and, being a novelty even in old 
England, it is not strange that it should 
have set provincial Philadelphia astir, nor 
that six barges were needed to keep at a 
distance the numerous boats, filled with 
eager spectators, that crowded the Dela- 
ware on the day of the entertainment, 
when : 

" There in the broad, clear afternoon, 
With myriad oars, and all in tune, 
A swarm of barges moved away 
In all their grand regatta pride." 

We doubt whether those who disap- 
proved of the whole affair — the Quakers, 
Whigs, and many sensible Tories — could 
forbear casting furtive glances toward that 
fairy procession, which, Read says, — 

" Like tropic isles of flowery light, 
Unmoored by some enchanter's might, 
O'erflowed with music, floated down 
Pefore the wharf-assembled town." 



THE MESCHIANZA. 4I 

Thus this gay and brilHant fleet pro- 
ceeded down the river with flying col- 
ors, while the band played stirring Eng- 
lish airs, amid the soft breezes and under 
the perfect skies of an old-time May day, 
until they arrived opposite the scene of 
the festivity, where everything was in 
readiness for joust and revelry. Salutes 
were fired by the " Roebuck" as soon as 
General Howe stepped on shore, which 
were echoed by the " Vigilant" and several 
smaller vessels up and down the river. 

" The fleet at the wharves," says our 
journalist, " consisting of about three hun- 
dred sail, adorned with colors, and together 
with the procession, exhibited a very grand 
and pleasing appearance." Very grand it 
must have been to see those knights, ladies, 
and officers, in their rich costumes, leaving 
behind them the gay scene on the river, 
and walking between two files of grenadiers 
up the avenue toward the house ! The 
bravest display of the kind that the New 
World could afford, for Philadelphia then 
excelled all the other Colonial cities in 
size, culture, and importance ; and here, be- 
4* 



42 • THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

side the flower of the EngHsh army, were 
met some of the most beautiful women of 
the day. 

Passing up this avenue, the company 
entered a lawn, four hundred yards on 
every side, where all was prepared for the 
exhibition of a tournament according to 
the laws of ancient chivalry. Here were 
two pavilions, with rows of benches rising 
one above the other ; on the front row of 
each were placed seven of the principal 
young ladies of the county, arrayed in 
white Poland dresses of Mantua with 
long sleeves, a gauze turban spangled, and 
sashes round the waist. Seven of them 
wore pink sashes with silver spangles, and 
the others white with gold spangles. All 
bore in their turbans favors destined for 
their respective knights. Those who wore 
pink and white were called the Ladies of 
the Blended Rose, and were Miss Auch- 
muty. Miss Peggy Chew, Miss Janet Craig, 
Miss Nancy Redman, Miss Nancy White, 
Miss Bond, and Miss Margaret Shippen. 
Lord Cathcart, who led the Knights of the 
Blended Rose in Miss Auchmuty's honor, 



THE MESCHIANZA. 43 

appeared upon a superb charger. Two 
young black slaves, with sashes of blue 
and white silk, wearing large silver clasps 
round their necks and arms, their breasts 
and shoulders bare, held his stirrups. On 
his right hand walked Captain Hazard, and 
on his left Captain Brownlow, his two 
esquires, the one bearing his lance, the 
other his shield. His device was Cupid 
riding on a Lion ; the motto, " Surmounted 
by Love." 

The Ladies of the Burning Mountain, 
whose dress was white and gold, and 
whose chief was Captain Watson, superbly 
mounted, and arrayed in a magnificent 
suit of black and orange silk, were Miss 
Rebecca Franks, in whose honor Captain 
Watson appeared, with the motto " Love 
and Glory," Miss Sarah Shippen, Miss P. 
Shippen, Miss Becky Bond, Miss Becky 
Redman, Miss Sally Chew, and Miss Wil- 
helmina Smith. 

In all descriptions of the Meschianza 
related by eye-witnesses, the Shippen sis- 
ters are spoken of as having taken a promi- 
nent part in the entertainment. Only 



V 



A^A^ THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

within a few years has a letter from a 
member of the family controverted this 
statement, in the following terms : 

" The young ladies [the daughters of Chief Justice 
Edward Shippen] had been invited and had arranged 
to go [to the Meschianza] ; their names were upon the 
programmes, and their dresses actually prepared ; but at 
the last moment their father was visited by some of his 
friends, prominent members of the Society of Friends, 
who persuaded him that it would be by no means seemly 
that his daughters should appear in public in the Turkish 
dresses designed for the occasion. Consequently, al- 
though they are said to have been in a dancing fury, 
they were obliged to stay away. This same story has, 
I know, come down independently through several 
branches of the family, and was told to me repeatedly, 
the last time not more than two years ago, by an old 
lady of the family, who was a niece of Mrs. Arnold 
and her sisters, and who has since died." * 

Major Andre includes the Shippens in 
his description of the entertainment printed 
in the Gcntlcnimis Magazine in August, 
1778. The discrepancy between his state- 
ment and the family letters can be ac- 
counted for only upon the supposition that, 

* From a letter of the late Lawrence Lewis, Jr., writ- 
ten in 1S79. 



THE MESCHIANZA. 45 

like the modern reporter, Andre sent off 
his copy before the ball had taken place ; 
or perhaps the " dancing fury" of his 
daughters had such an effect upon the 
Chief Justice that, at the last moment, the 
girls were allowed to go. 

Beautiful, brilliant, and fascinating, full 
of spirit and gayety, the toast of the British 
officers, Miss Peggy Shippen seems so 
much a part of the Meschianza that we 
incline to the latter theory, being almost 
as unwilling to spare her and her sisters 
from the ranks of beauty as were the gal- 
lant young officers who were prepared to 
do battle in their honor. 

As soon as the fair ladies were seated 
upon the benches prepared for them, the 
crowd on the left gave way, and the 
Knights of the Blended Rose appeared 
mounted on white steeds elegantly capari- 
soned and covered with white satin orna- 
mented with pink roses. " These knights," 
says our journalist, " were dressed in white 
and pink satin, with hats of pink silk, the 
brims of which were covered with white 
feathers. Each knight had his squire on 



46 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

foot, dressed also in white and pink, with 
the addition of a cloak of white silk. 
Every squire carried a spear and shield, 
each of which had a different device and 
motto." 

The knights, having all ridden around 
the lists and saluted the ladies, sent their 
herald, with two trumpeters, to the Dul- 
cineas with this message : " The Knights 
of the Blended Rose, by me their herald, 
proclaim and assert that the ladies of the 
Blended Rose excel in wit, beauty, and 
every other accomplishment all other ladies 
in the world, and if any knight or knights 
shall be so hardy as to deny this, they are 
determined to support their assertion by 
deeds of arms, agreeable to the laws of 
ancient chivalry," 

The trumpets then sounded, and the 
herald returned to the knights, who rode 
by, saluted the Dulcineas, and took their 
places on the left hand, about one hundred 
yards distant. 

The crowd opening on the other side, a 
herald in orange and black, with a picture 
of a burning mountain on his back, rode 



THE MESCHIANZA, 4/ 

forward to assure the fair ones of the 
Burning Mountain that their claims to wit, 
beauty, and all other chdiVxns, par excellence, 
should be vindicated by the knights whose 
colors they wore, " against the false and 
vainglorious assertions of the Knights of 
the Blended Rose." 

The field marshal, Major Gwynne, now 
gave the signal, upon which a glove was 
thrown down by the chief of the White 
Knights, which was picked up by the 
esquire of the chief of the Black Knights ; 
the trumpet sounded, and the fight was 
on, under the fire of many bright eyes from 
the pavilions where the Queens of Beauty 
were seated. 

Lances were shivered, pistols fired, and 
finally, in the midst of an engagement with 
broadswords. Major Gywnne rode in be- 
tween the combatants, declaring that the 
ladies were abundantly satisfied with the 
proofs of valor and devotion displayed by 
their respective knights. These fell back, 
and, joining their companies, passed on, the 
White Knights to the left, the Black to 
the right, saluting their ladies when they 



48 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

reached the paviHons, after which they 
passed through the triumphal arch, in 
honor of Lord Howe, and ranged them- 
selves on either side. This arch was 
elegantly painted with naval ornaments. 
At the top was a figure representing 
Neptune, with his trident and a ship. In 
the interior were the attributes of that 
god. On each side of the arch was 
placed a sailor, with his sword drawn. 
Lord Howe being an admiral in the 
service, these emblems were most appro- 
priate. 

The knights' ladies passed under the 
arch after the knights, who dismounted 
and joined them, all proceeding together 
along a broad avenue, brilliantly decorated, 
to another arch of the same size and ele- 
gance as the first, this in honor of Sir 
William Howe. " Upon passing this second 
arch," our journalist tells us, " we entered 
a beautiful Flower- Garden and up a Gravel 
Court, ascended a flight of Steps which 
conducted us into the House, at the door 
of which we were received by the Man- 
agers of the Meschianza, — namely. Sir 



THE MESCHIANZA. 49 

John Wrottesley, Sir Henry Calder, Col- 
onel O'Hara, and Colonel Montresor." 
Andre mentions the same, except that he 
substitutes Major Gardiner for Sir Henry 
Calder. 

Two folding-doors were opened, and the 
company was ushered into a large hall, bril- 
liantly lighted, where tea, coffee, and cakes 
were served, and where the knights upon 
bended knee received the favors due them 
from their respective ladies. This scene 
must have been one of the most grace- 
ful and charming of the whole pageant, 
and had it not been for the remembrance 
of that dear Honora whose miniature 
he always wore, Andre certainly could 
not have remained insensible to the mani- 
fold attractions of Miss Peggy Chew, who 
now rewarded him for having " perilled 
life and limb" in her service, and whose 
praises are thus sung by Mr. Joseph Ship- 
pen : 

" With either Chew such beauties dwell, 
Such charms by each are shared. 
No critic's judging eye can tell 
"Which merits most regard. 
d 5 




50 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

" 'Tis far beyond the painter's skill 
To set their charms to view ; 
As far beyond the poet's quill 
To give the praise that's due." 

Amid blushes, soft whisperings, and 
compliments such as the gentlemen of that 
time were skilled in paying, the fair ones 
bestowed their gracious favors ; after which 
the company entered another hall, elabo- 
rately decorated and hung with eighty- 
five mirrors, decked with rose-pink silk 
ribbons and artificial flowers. In this 
ball-room, whose walls were pale blue and 
rose-pink, with panels on which were drop- 
ping festoons of flowers, " when the com- 
pany was come up," says our authority, 
quaintly, " the Dulcineas danced first with 
the knights, and then with the squires, 
and after them the rest of the company 
danced." 

At half-past ten o'clock the windows 
were thrown open to enable the guests to 
, / enjoy the magnificent fireworks on the 
lawn, when the triumphal arch near the 
house appeared brilliantly illuminated, 
Fame blowing from her trumpet these 



THE MESCHIANZA. 5 I 

words : " Tcs Lauricrs sont i)n)fiortcls," — 
meaning Sir William's. 

About this time Captain Allan McLane, 
with a company of infantry and Clow's 
dragoons, was endeavoring to win for him- 
self immortal laurels by firing the abatis 
at the north of the city, which connected 
the line of the British redoubts. When 
the flames reddened the sky the ladies, 
doubtless, clapped their hands with delight, 
wondering at the beauty of the illumina- 
tion, which illusion was encouraged by the 
officers ; and later, when the roll-call was 
sounded along the line and the guns of the 
redoubts fired, the guests were assured 
that this was all a part of the celebration, 
and the dancing continued. Although 
McLane did not succeed in breaking up 
.the party, as he had hoped, he gave the 
Bri;ish officers a fright, which must have 
considerably marred the enjoyment of the 
evening for them. The dragoons sent in 
pursuit of the incendiaries did not succeed 
in overtaking them, as they found a refuge 
among the hills of the Wissahickon. 

" After the fireworks the company re- 



[y' 



V 



52 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

turned, some to dancing and others to a 
Faro-bank, which was opened by three 
German officers in one of the Parlours. 
The Company continued dancing and play- 
ing until twelve o'clock, when we were 
called to Supper, and two folding-doors at 
the end of the hall being thrown open, we 
entered a room two hundred feet long by 
forty wide. The Floor was covered with 
painted Canvas, and the roof and sides 
adorned with paintings and ornamented 
with fifty large mirrors. From the roof 
hung twelve Lustres, with twenty Sperma- 
ceti candles in each. In this room were two 
Tables, reaching from one end to the other. 
On the two tables were fifty large, elegant 
pyramids, with Jellies, Syllabub, Cakes, and 
Sweetmeats." Beside this there were vari- 
ous substantial, soup being mentioned as 
the only viand served hot. 

Major Andre, after describing the dec- 
orations of this supper-room, says that 
" there were four hundred and thirty 
covers, twelve hundred dishes, and twenty- 
four black slaves in Oriental dresses, with 
silver collars and bracelets, ranged in two 



THE MESCHIANZA. 53 

lines, and bending to the ground as the 
general and admiral approached the sa- 
loon ; all these, forming together the most 
brilliant assemblage of gay objects, and 
appearing at once as we entered by an 
easy descent, exhibited a conp-d'ccil beyond 
description magnificent." 

Toward the end of supper, the herald 
of the Blended Rose, in his habit of cere- 
mony, attended by his trumpeters, entered 
the saloon and proclaimed the King's 
health, the Queen's, and that of the royal 
family. After the toast to the King, all 
the company rose and sang " God Save the 
King," which must have been a very trying 
moment to those Whig ladies present, who 
through all the enjoyment of the day were 
doubtless considerably jjricked in their 
consciences. More loyal toasts followed, 
to the army and navy, their commanders, 
and finally to the ladies and their knights, 
the ladies' toast being : " The Founder of 
the Feast." 

We are pained to read that some of the 
gentlemen, among them one of the same 
party as our quaint journalist, were so 
5* 



54 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

ungallant as to remain at table, declaring 
their intention of devoting the night to 
Bacchus, — alas for Venus ! The guests 
did not disperse until dawn began to redden 
the eastern sky, and some tarried until the 
sun was up. 

Here I cannot forbear transcribing some 
verses written by a lady — Miss Hannah 
Griffith — residing in Philadelphia at this 
time, in which, though an ardent loyalist, 
she, as a member of the Society of Friends, 
expressed her indignation against the whole 
affair. The poem is in answer to the ques- 
tion, " What is it ?" and the Quaker lady's 
reply rings forth with no uncertain sound. 

" A shameful scene of dissipation, 
The death of sense and reputation ; 
A deep degeneracy of nature, 
A frolic ' for the lush of satire.' 
A feast of grandeur fit for kings. 
Formed of the following empty things : 
Ribbons and gewgaws, tints and tinsel, 
To glow beneath the historic pencil ; 
(For what though reason now stands neuter, 
How will it sparkle, — page the future ?) 
Heroes that will not bear inspection, 
And glasses to affect reflection ; 



THE MESCHIANZA. 5 5 

Triumphant arches raised in bUinders, 
And true Don Quixotes made of wonders. 
Laurels, instead of weeping willows, 
To crown the bacchanalian fellows ; 
The sound of victory complete, 
Loudly re-echoed from defeat ; 
The fair of vanity profound, 
A madman's dance, — a lover's round. 

" In short, it's one clear contradiction 
To every truth (except a fictionj ; 
Condemned by wisdom's silver rules, 
The blush of sense and gaze of fools. 

" But recollection's pained to know 
That ladies joined the frantic show ; 
When female prudence thus can fail, 
It's time the sex should wear the veil." 



So ended this afternoon and evening of 
brilliant and gorgeous pageantry, resem- 
bling more nearly a chapter from one of 
the richly-colored Eastern fairy-tales that 
delighted our childhood than a story of 
Colonial days, which was speedily followed 
by the sober realities of Sir William and 
Lord Howe's return to England and by 
Clinton's evacuation of Philadelphia. 

It may be interesting to follow the fates 



56 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

of those gay beauties who held their brief, 
brilHant court through that spring after- 
noon, especially so to that much maligned 
class who study the science of love and 
courtship, crudely called match-makers. 

Strange as it may seem, none of the 
queens of the Meschianza married their 
respective knights. Miss Janet Craig, 
whose knight was Lieutenant Bygrove, 
and who has described the whole scene as 
one of enchantment to her young mind, 
was never married. 

The chief lady of the Knights of the 
Blended Rose, although spoken of fre- 
quently as an English girl, was the 
daughter of the Rev. Samuel Auchmuty, 
D.D., of Trinity Church, New York, a de- 
voted loyalist. Miss Auchmuty was with 
her brother-in-law. Captain Montr6sor, 
chief engineer of General Gage's army at 
Boston, to whose skill the success of the 
fireworks at the Meschianza was largely 
due. 

Wilhelmina Smith, whose picture, with 
its bright eyes and tip-tilted nose, lies be- 
fore us, had for her knight Major Tarleton, 



THE MESCHIANZA. 5/ 

who appeared with the motto " Swift, vig- 
ilant, and bold." He who was afterward 
the terror of the South is described as a 
fine, soldierly fellow of one-and-twenty, 
who, " when not riding races with Major 
Gwynne on the commons," spent his time 
in making love to the ladies. Miss Smith 
became the wife of Charles Goldsborough, 
of Long Neck, Dorset County, Maryland. 
The Misses Redman, so often mentioned 
among the belles of the time, were nieces 
of the famous Dr. John Redman. Miss 
Rebecca, whose knight was Monsieur 
Montluisant* (lieutenant of Hessian Chas- 
seurs), with the emblem a sunflower turn- 
ing to the sun, her motto '' Je vise a vous',' 
is said to have been the Queen of the Mes- 
chianza, whom Watson describes, many 
years later, as old and blind, " fast waning 
from the things that be," yet able to paint 

* It appears that this knight with the shining name 
and emblem had not a reputation to match them. We 
learn that he entered the army only to get to America, 
was discharged, tried to join the Colonial army, and 
was seized and sent to England. (German Allied 
Troops, 1 776-1 783, p. 333.) 



58 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

in vivid colors the occurrences of this day. 
She spoke of Andre as the hfe of the com- 
pany. It is not strange that this brave 
young officer and elegant and accomplished 
gentleman, who added so much to the en- 
joyment of the loyalist ladies of Phila- 
delphia during the British occupation, 
should have been long held by them in 
grateful remembrance. We know that he 
was on terms of intimate friendship with 
one of these sisters, as it was for her he 
wrote those tender, plaintive verses, com- 
mencing, — 

" Return, enraptured hours, 

When Delia's heart was mine; 

When she with wreaths of flowers 

My temples would entwine." 

For her he cut silhouettes of mutual friends, 
and, on leaving the city, severed one of the 
buttons of his coat, which he playfully 
presented to her as a parting keepsake. 
Miss Rebecca Redman married Colonel 
Elisha Lawrence in December, 1779. 

Miss Margaret Chew, in whose honor 
Major Andre appeared with the motto 



THE MESCHIANZA. 59 

" No rival," was married on the ninth 
anniversary of the Meschianza to Colonel 
John Eager Howard, of Maryland. The 
Howards of Belvidere are a well-known 
Baltimore family, and this young man filled 
a prominent place in the war of the Revo- 
lution. He was present at the battle of 
White Plains, distinguished himself at Ger- 
mantown, where so many of our heroes 
strove in vain to turn the tide of battle, 
served under Gates in the South, and at 
the battle of Cowpens decided the fortunes 
of the day by a successful bayonet charge. 
At one time, it is said, he held in his 
hands the swords of seven British officers 
of the Seventy-First Regiment. After the 
war he was Governor of Maryland and 
filled other public offices of importance. 
Surely, in this case, " the brave deserved 
the fair." 

One of the most striking figures in this 
brilliant assemblage was Rebecca Franks, 
who was as celebrated for her ready wit 
as was Peggy Shippen for her exquisite 
beauty and grace. Handsome, witty, and 
an heiress, combining with these attrac- 



6o THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

i/ tions that of being an ardent loyalist, it is 
not strange that Miss Franks was given 
a high place at the British revel. She 
won the affections of Colonel (afterwards 
General) Sir Henry Johnson, who while 
in Philadelphia lodged with Edward Pen- 
ington, a leading Friend, at the corner of 
Crown and Race Streets. The marriage 
took place January 17, 1782, and after the 
surrender of Yorktown Sir Henry and his 
bride sailed for England. Colonel John- 
son was surprised at Stony Point on the 
night of July 15, 1779, by Wayne, and 
made prisoner with all his force. He 
afterwards distinguished himself in the 
Irish rebellion, and was created Baronet. 
Although Cornwallis speaks of Sir Henry 
as " a wrong-headed blockhead," and 
thinks that he has been unduly praised, we 
are inclined to say that he who was willing 
to run the gauntlet of Miss Franks's daring 
raillery must have been a brave man. She 
seems to have spared neither friend nor 
foe, and her wit was always telling, whether 
flashing up m the quick rejoinder, " No; 
Britons, go home, you mean," when Sir 



THE MESCHIANZA. 6l 

Henry Clinton ordered the band to play 
" Britons, Strike Home," at a New York 
ball, or in her keen, sharp rebuff when 
Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Steward, of Mary- 
land, after the evacuation of Philadelphia 
by the British, appeared before her in a 
fine suit of scarlet, saying, " Ihave adopted 
your colors, my Princess, the better to se- 
cure a courteous reception ; deign to smile 
on a true knight." To this speech Miss 
Franks made no reply, but, turning to the 
company who surrounded her, exclaimed, 
" How the ass glories in the lion's skin 1" 

One of this lady's pointed shafts was 
directed at General Charles Lee, and this 
time the daring beauty met her match, for 
he not only vindicated himself from her 
charge of having worn " green breeches 
patched with leather," but in language 
more caustic than courtly alluded to her 
own Jewish ancestry. There is a flavor of 
the wit of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 
and Walpole in these jokes; but they raised 
a great laugh at the time, and were per- 
haps of a sort to be better relished in Miss 
Franks's future home than in America. 
6 



62 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

General Winfield Scott gives a descrip- 
tion of an interview held with this lady at 
her residence, at Bath, when years had 
sadly impaired the beauty that had once 
captivated all hearts. A bright-eyed old 
lady in an easy-chair met Scott with an 
eager, kindly gaze and the query, " Is this 
the young rebel ?" Such were her words, 
yet, before the conversation ended, Lady 
Johnson confessed that she had learned to 
glory in her rebel countrymen and wished 
that she had been a patriot, too. " Not 
that heaven had failed to bless her with a 
good husband, either," she replied to Sir 
Henry's gentle remonstrances. 

When the Americans regained posses- 
sion of Philadelphia an effort was made 
by the Whigs to exclude frorh their gather- 
ings those ladies who had taken part in the 
Meschianza and other British entertain- 
ments.* With this object in view, a ball 
was given at the City Tavern " to the 
young ladies who had manifested their 



* Fred. D. Stone, renusylvania Magazine, vol. iii. 



THE MESCHIANZA. 63 

attachment to the cause of virtue and 
freedom by sacrificing every convenience to 
the love of their country." * This sounded 
patriotic enough, but we learn that General 
Arnold soon after gave an entertainment 
at which the Tory ladies appeared in full 
force, which is not to be wondered at in 
view of the intelligence that Mrs. Robert 
Morris communicated to her mother about 
this time: "I must tell you that Cupid has 
given our little General a more mortal 
wound than all the hosts of Britons could, 
unless his present conduct can expiate for 
his past, — Miss Peggy Shippen is the fair 
one." 

With Cupid thus taking a hand in the 
game, and bringing to the feet of one of 
the brightest of the Tory belles the mili- 
tary commandant of Philadelphia, we can 
readily believe that General Wayne's severe 
strictures upon the foolish fair fell upon 
unheeding ears : 

" Tell those Philadelphia ladies, who attended Howe's 
assemblies & levees," he writes in July, 1778, " that the 

* Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, vol. ii. p. 297. 



64 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

heavenly, sweet, pretty red-coats — the accomplished 
gentlemen of the guards & grenadiers have been humbled 
on the plauis of Monmouth. 

" The Knights of the Blended Roses and of the Burn- 
ing Mojtni have resigned their laurels to Rebel officers, 
who will lay them at the feet of those virtuous daughters 
of America, who cheerfully gave up ease and affluence 
in a city, for liberty and peace of mind in a cottage." * 

* Biographical Sketch of General Anthony Wayne, 
Hazard's Register, p. 389. 






,MID elaborate ceremonials attending 
the reception and inauguration of 
the first President of the Republic, we 
find some homely touches of nature, as 
when those two admirable housewives 
Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Adams were 
detained at home, in April and May, 
1789, by domestic duties, and so missed 
all the joyful demonstrations along the 
route, as well as the brave welcome ac- 
corded their distinguished husbands in 
the city of New York. Mrs. Washing- 
ton was busied in putting her household 
in order, and shipping china, cut glass, 
silver-ware, and linen from Mount Ver- 
non to the capital, while from John 
6* 65 



66 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Adams's letters we gather that the wife, 
whom he so trusted that he permitted 
her to dispose of sheep, cows, and other 
Hve-stock, on her own responsibihty, was 
attending to such matters at Braintree, 
Massachusetts, prior to the removal of her 
household gods to the fine country-place 
at Richmond Hill that Mr. Adams had 
rented for the season.* 

Although Mr. Samuel Breck, recently 
arrived from Europe, found New York in 
1787 "a poor town, with about twenty- 
three thousand people, not yet recovered 
from its Revolutionary wounds" and the 
great fire that swept over its western portion, 
he is pleased, two years later, to admire 
the improvements recently made, especially 
some beautiful houses built on Broadway 
by Mr. Macomb, one of which was occu- 
pied by General Knox, the Secretary of 
War. As soon as it transpired that New 
York was to be the meeting-place of the 
new Congress, and that General Washing- 



* This hou«e was the residence of Aaron Burr at the 
\/ time of his duel with Alexander Hamilton. 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 6/ 

ton was elected President, the selection of 
a suitable residence for the Chief Magis- 
trate became a matter of considerable 
interest in Republican circles. The Presi- 
dent later occupied Mr, Macomb's house 
on Broadway near Bowling Green, subse- 
quently known as the Mansion House and 
Bunker's Hotel ; but his first residence was 
the house of Walter Franklin, as is proved 
by a letter written from New York, April 
30, 1789, which with other family papers 
furnishes us some interesting facts relating 
to this old homestead, and its renovation 
preparatory to the advent of the President 
and his wife, that have not yet appeared 
in the histories of the time. The clever 
chronicler is Mrs. William T. Robinson, 
and the letter is addressed to Miss Kitty 
Wistar, of Brandy wine, afterwards Mrs. 
Sharpies, through the courtesy of whose 
descendants it has come into the writer's 
hands. 

"Great rejoicing in New York," she says, "on the 
arrival of General Washington. An elegant Barge 
decorated with an awning of Sattin, 12 oarsmen drest in 
white frocks and blue ribbons, went down to E. Town 



68 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

[Elizabeth] last fourth day to bring him up. A Stage 
was erected at the Coffee House wharf covered with a 
carpet for him to step on, where a company of light 
horse, one of Artillery, and most of the Inhabitants 
were waiting to receive him.* They Paraded through 
Queen Street in great form, while the music, the Drums 
and ringing of bells were enough to stun one with the 
noise. Previous to his coming Uncle Walter's house in 
Cherry Street was taken for him and every room furnished 
in the most elegant manner. 

" The evening after his Excellency's arrival a general 
Illumination took place, excepting among Friends, and 
those stykd Anti-Federalists : the latter's windows suf- 
fered some, thou may imagine. As soon as the Gen- 
eral has sworn in, a grand exhibition of fire-works is to 
be displayed, which it is expected will be to-morrow. 
There is scarcely anything talked of now but General 
"Washington and the Palace." 



* Mrs. Robinson's statement that a carpet was spread 
from the wharf for the President to walk upon was 
authenticated, more than sixty years later, by an eye- 
witness of the scene. Dr. Atlee, in 1850, while sub- 
stitute-resident at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Phila- 
delphia, met a man of eighty-two who, when he learned 
that the young physician was named Walter Franklin 
Atlee, exclaimed at the coincidence, saying that he re- 
membered having seen General Washington come up 
the river in a boat, and walk on a carpet to Walter 
Franklin's house, where he and Mrs. Washington were 
to reside. 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 69 

The palace referred to is, evidently, the 
former residence of Walter Franklin, situ- 
ated at the corner of Pearl and Cherry- 
Streets, then owned by his widow, who had 
married Mr. Samuel Osgood, Postmaster- 
General under the new administration. 
Watson says that the Franklin House on 
Pearl Street was " No. i in pre-eminence," 
and, from the wealth and position of its 
owner, it was evidently considered the best 
in the city for the purpose. Mrs. Robinson 
describes it as having been very sumptu- 
ously fitted up ; and so it doubtless was, ac- 
cording to the prevailing idea of elegance. 
Miss Wistar's correspondent adds 

" Thou must know that Uncle Osgood and Duer were 
appointed to procure a house and furnish it; accord- 
ingly they pitched on their wives as being likely to do 
it better. Aunt Osgood and Lady Kitty Duer had the 
whole management of it. I went the morning before 
the General's arrival to look at it. The house really did 
honour to my Aunt and Lady Kitty, they spared no 
pains nor expense in it. I have not done yet, my dear, 
is thee not almost tired ? The best of furniture in every 
room, and the greatest quantity of plate and China that 
I ever saw before. The whole of the first and second 
Story is papered, and the floor covered with the richest 
kind of Turkey and Wilton Carpets." 



// 



70 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

The Mr. Duer spoken of by Mrs. Robin- 
son is Colonel William Duer, who had 
early in life been aide-de-camp to Lord 
Clive in India, and who later held impor- 
tant positions under the Federal govern- 
ment. His wife was one of the daughters 
of General William Alexander, claimant 
to the Scottish earldom of Stirling. She 
consequently figured in New York society 
as Lady Kitty Duer, giving, with her 
own sister. Lady Mary Watts, and Lady 
Temple, a flavor of British aristocracy to 
republican circles. Lady Kitty is de- 
scribed by John Quincy Adams as " one 
of the sweetest-looking women in the city," 
— which testimony is scarcely corroborated 
by her portrait in the exaggerated coiffure 
of the day. 

Walter Franklin's house on Cherry 
Street, and that of his brother Samuel, 
which was around the corner on Pearl 
Street, were both near the shipping quarter 
of the town, in which respect they resem- 
bled fashionable Philadelphia residences of 
the same period. A number of interesting 
family traditions cluster about these fine 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. Jl 

old houses, in which a bevy of gay girls 
was gathered together, who charmed the 
British officers during their occupation of 
the city, just as their Quaker sisters were 
doing in old Philadelphia, Some of the 
officers were quartered on the Franklins, 
among them Lord Rawdon and Admiral 
Lord Richard Howe, who respectively 
commanded the army and the fleet, Sally 
Franklin, the writer of the letter from 
which we have quoted, was then a young 
girl, and a very beautiful one. Her mar- 
riage with Mr. Robinson took place while 
the British had possession of New York. 
She was evidently a great favorite with the 
officers in command, who begged to be 
permitted to attend her wedding in Quaker 
meeting. This request was refused, on the 
plea that the wedding was to be a very 
quiet one. British officers, as Miss Rebecca 
Franks has informed us, were not accus- 
tomed to take no for an answer, unless 
accompanied with shot and shell. Ac- 
cordingly, on the morning of the marriage, 
when the beautiful bride, in her white silk ' 
dress and white bonnet, stood in the quaint 



72 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

old meeting, listening to the words of her 
lover, " I take this Friend, Sarah Franklin, 
to be my wedded wife," a sudden sound of 
footsteps and clattering of swords against 
the benches was heard, and, lo ! Lord 
Rawdon, Lord Howe, and a train of young 
officers, resplendent in. gay uniforms and 
gold lace, stood within the solemn en- 
closure of the meeting. They seated them- 
selves, with malice aforethought, on a long 
bench opposite the bride, whose turn had 
now come to speak. Trembling, and care- 
fully avoiding the eyes of the strangers, 
who had vowed that they would make her 
smile in the midst of the ceremony, she 
performed her part, declaring her intention 
to take Friend William to be her wedded 
husband. When the marriage certificate 
was signed, the names of Lord Howe, 
Lord Rawdon, and the other officers were 
appended, beautiful Sarah Robinson show- 
ing her forgiving spirit still further by 
allowing those, among the intruders, who 
were well known to her to return to the 
house and partake of the wedding-feast. 
The New York <jirls had a longer time 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 73 

in which to enjoy the society of the gallant 
red-coats than their Philadelphia sisters, 
and were consequently in greater danger 
of losing their hearts to them. There 
were some marriages with British officers, 
as in the family of Andrew Elliot, Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of New York, one of 
whose daughters married Admiral Robert 
Digby, while another, Elizabeth, became 
the wife of William, tenth Baron and first 
Earl of Cathcart, the same who as Lord 
Cathcart had figured as chief of the 
Knights of the Blended Rose in the Mes- 
chianza.* Miss Philipse was also one of 

* " Lady Cathcart was Lady of the Bedchamber to 
Queen Charlotte. Peter Pindar celebrates her at Wey- 
mouth in connection with the king's insensate manners : 

' Ccesar spies Lady Cathcart with a book ; 
He flies to know what 'tis — he longs to look. 
" What's in your hand, my lady ? let me know ?" — 
" A book, an't please your majesty ?" — " Oho ! 
Book's a good thing — good thing, — I like a book. 
Very good thing, my lady, — let me look. 
War of America ! my lady, hae ? 
Bad thing, my lady ! fling, fling that away." ' " 
Life of Major John Andri, by Winthrop Sargent, p. 

147- 

D 7 



74 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

those who yielded to the attractions of the 
enemy, as she married the Hon. Lionel 
Smythe, son of Philip, fourth Viscount 
Strafford, at the time captain of the Twenty- 
Third British Foot. Most of the New 
York belles had, as Graydon puts it, "suf- 
ficient toleration for our cause to marry 
officers of the Continental army," and 
when the new administration came in, we 
find them as ready to dance to Whig music 
as they had been to Tory. The Comte de 
Moustier soon gave these impartial fair 
ones an opportunity to display their Terp- 
sichorean powers at a very elegant ball, 
given to President Washington, two weeks 
after his inauguration, at the Macomb 
house, on Broadway, which was after- 
wards occupied by President Washington. 
On this occasion the alliance between 
France and America was represented in a 
cotillon, half the dancers being in French 
costume and the other half in American ; 
the ladies who represented France wear- 
ing red roses and flowers of France, and 
the American ladies blue ribbons and 
American flowers. Mr. Elias Boudinot, 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 75 

chairman of the committee of Congress, 
in a description of this ball sent to his 
wife in Philadelphia, speaks of these rep- 
resentatives of the allied powers entering 
the room, two by two, and engaging in 
what he ingeniously calls " a most curious 
dance, called oi ballet, to show the happy 
union between the two nations." * 

The Comte de Moustier had succeeded 
Barbe-Marbois as French minister to the 
United States, and was so addicted to 
entertaining that he was wont to say that 
he was " but a tavern-keeper ;" adding, 
facetiously, that " the Americans had the 
complaisance not to demand his recall." f 
Of the new ambassador Mr. Madison wrote 
to Mr, Jefferson, in Paris, " It is with much 
pleasure I inform you that Moustier begins 

* See Army List, 1778. 

I This pleasantry on the part of the French minister 
seems to have been taken au serieux by certain writers 
as pointing to some obscurity of origin, while the fact 
is substantiated by various authorities that Eleonore- 
Frangois-Elie, Comte de Moustier, entered the diplo- 
matic service at eighteen, and after representing his 
country at several foreign courts was twice offered the 
position of Minister of Foreign Affairs by Louis XVI. 



^6 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

to make himself acceptable ; and with still 
more that Madame Brehan begins to be 
viewed in the light which I hope she 
merits." This lady was Anne-Flore Mil- 
let, Marquise de Brehan, a sister of the 
Comte de Moustier, who assisted him in 
doing the honors of his house. She is 
described as a singular, whimsical old 
woman, who delighted in playing with 
a negro child and caressing a monkey. 
With all her eccentricities, she seems to 
have been possessed of some talent and 
considerable skill as an artist, as she not 
only executed several portraits of Wash- 
ington, but achieved a feat known to few 
portrait-painters, that of pleasing the sitter 
himself. 

About a week before the Comte de 
Moustier's entertainment, the inauguration 
ball was held, and, if we are to credit con- 
temporaneous gossip, was a very grand 
and imposing function. Although those 
were days of stage-coaching and slow 
travel, a number of visitors from other 
cities were in New York, as appears from 
a letter written by Miss Bertha Ingersoll, 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. // 

from the scene of the festivities, to Miss 
SalHe McKean in Philadelphia. 

" We shall remain here," she writes, " even if we 
have to sleep in tents, as so many will have to do. Mr. 
Williamson had promised to engage us rooms at Fraun- 
cis's, but that was jammed long ago, as was every other 
decent public house, and now while we are waiting at 
Mrs. Vandervoort's, in Maiden Lane, till after dinner, two 
of our beaux are running about town determined to obtain 
the best places for us to stay at which can be opened for 
love or money or the most persuasive speeches." 

Mrs. Washington was still at Mount 
Vernon on the 7th of May, the date of 
the inauguration ball,* consequently the 
story of a sofa raised some steps above 
the floor of the ball-room for the accom- 
modation of the President and his wife 
during the dancing is quite without founda- 
tion, as is the equally absurd story of portly 
Mrs. Knox pushing her way up to this 
circle and having to descend suddenly 
from her elevated position because there 
was no room for her on the platform. 
Even if there was no dais for the President 
and his wife, there was no lack of form 

* United States Gazette, May 9, 1789. 

7* 



78 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

and ceremony at this Republican enter- 
tainment, where the men all wore the small- 
clothes of the day, which so well became 
their stately proportions, and where, says 
Huntingdon, many powdered heads were 
still to be seen, among men as well as 
women. The President's costume on such 
occasions was a full suit of black velvet, 
with long black silk stockings, white vest, 
silver knee- and shoe-buckles, the hair be- 
ing powdered and gathered together at the 
back in a black silk bag tied with a bow of 
black ribbon. He wore a light dress sword, 
with a richly-ornamented hilt, and often 
carried in his hand a cocked hat, decorated 
with the American cockade. The Vice- 
President, John Adams, wore a full suit of 
drab, with bag-wig and wrist-ruffles. The 
gentlemen's laces seem to have rivalled 
those of the ladies, although in their cos- 
tumes rich silks, satins, and brocades had 
begun to give place to cloth of various 
colors, as if to forecast the less ornate 
masculine costume of later date. 

" The collection of ladies" at this ball, 
writes a contemporary, " was numerous 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 79 

and brilliant, and they were dressed with 
consummate taste and elegance. The num- 
ber of persons present was upwards of 
three hundred, and satisfaction, vivacity, 
and delight beamed from every counte- 
nance." Colonel WilHam Leet Stone, of 
New York, thus describes one of the cos- 
tumes : " It was a plain celestial blue satin 
gown, with a white satin petticoat. On 
the neck was worn a very large Italian 
gauze handkerchief, with border stripes of 
satin. The head-dress was a J>o?(/ of satin. 
in the form of a globe, the crcncmix or 
head-piece of which was composed of 
white satin, having a double wing in large 
pleats and trimmed with a wreath of artifi- 
cial roses. The hair was dressed all over in 
detached curls, four of which in two ranks 
fell on each side of the neck and were 
relieved behind by a floating chignon." 
We have Colonel Stone's word for it that 
this was an attractive costume, although the 
description does not sound so to modern 
ears, especially with the heavy head deco- 
rations. It appears, however, that the 
ladies of the first administration had made 



8o THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

one important departure, for which thanks- 
givings should have been devoutly uttered-. 
They had by this time renounced the un- 
gainly head-dress that had reared its pyr- 
amid skyward for some years, and which, 
accompanied as it was with scant drapery 
about the shoulders and bust, had led 
some wit of the day to accuse the fair 
ones of robbing their breasts of gauze, 
cambric, and muslin for the use of their 
heads, while another satirist wrote, — 

" Give Chloe a Bushel of horse-hair and wool, 
Of paste and pomatum a pound ; 
Ten yards of gay ribbon to deck her sweet skull, 
And gauze to encompass it round." 

Perhaps some such witticisms as these 
had led to the change of fashion ; or, more 
likely, a little bird from France had whis- 
pered in the ladies' ears that the mighty 
pyramid had fallen there. From what- 
ever cause, the structure of hair, flowers, 
feathers, and jewels no longer reared its 
imposing pinnacle above the brow of 
beauty, and many of the Stuart, Malbone, 
Trumbull, and Copley paintings of women 



K 



NEW YORK BALLS -AND RECEPTIONS. 8 1 

of this period represent the hair dressed 
low, with curls and bandeaux a la Grecqiie 
or rolled moderately high a la Pompadour. 
In one of the journals of the day we 
read that 

" On Thursday evening, the subscribers of the Dancing 
Assembly, gave an elegant I'all and Entertainment. The 
President of the United States, was pleased to honor the 
company with his presence — His Excellency the Vice 
President — most of the members of both Houses of 
Congress — His Excellency the Governor [Clinton] and 
a great many other dignified public characters: His 
Excellency Count de Moustier — His Most Christian 
Majesty's Ambassador — The Baron Steuben, and other 
foreigners of distinction were present, as well as the 
most beautiful ladies of New York." * 

Among these were the Misses Living- 
ston, one of whom married Mr. Ridley, of 

* It is interesting to turn from these Republican festivi- 
ties to read in the journal of a Moravian minister, written 
in New York during the occupation of the British, of 
King's and Queen's "Birthnight Balls," "Coronation 
Day" celebrations, and rejoicings over the arrival of 
" His Royal Highness, Prince William Henry, the third 
son of our dear King, an ami;ible young Prince, who 
gave satisfaction to all who saw him." — Diary of Ewala 
Gustav Schankirk. 
f 



82 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Baltimore, the Misses Van Home, " avowed 
Whigs," says Graydon, " notwithstanding 
their civility to the British officers," and 
the Misses White, who lived on Wall Street 
near Broadway, to one of whom was ad- 
dressed the following epigram by a beau 
of the period named Brown : 

" My lovely maid, I've often thought 
Whether thy name be just or not ; 
Thy bosom is as cold as snow, 
Which we for matchless tvhite may show ; 
But when thy beauteous face is seen, 
Thou'rt of brttncttes the channing queen. 
Resolve our doubts : let it be known 
Thou rather art inclined to Brmon.'''' 

It is evident that this fair White did not 
permanently incline to Brown, as one sister 
became Lady Hayes, and the other married 
one of the Monroes. Here also, in goodly 
array, were Osgoods, Philipses, Ruther- 
furds. Van Cortlandts, Van Zandts, Clintons, 
Montgomerys, De Lanceys, De Peysters, 
Kissams, Bleeckers, Clarksons, Verplancks, 
Schuylers, Van Rensselaers, and Macombs. 
How the old names repeat themselves in 
the social life of to-day ! Prominent in 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 83 

these inaugural festivities were the Living- 
stons of Clermont, Chief Justice Yates, of 
New York, the handsome soldierly figure 
of Morgan Lewis, Grand Marshal of the 
Inauguration ceremonies, Mrs. Dominick 
Lynch, Mrs. Edgar, Mrs. Provoost, Lady 
Stirling, and her two daughters. Lady Mary 
Watts and Lady Kitty Duer. We learn 
that their aunt, Mrs. Peter Van Brugh 
Livingston, had the honor of dancing a 
cotillon with the President, who opened ^ 
the ball with the wife of the Mayor of 
New York, Mrs. James Duane. He also 
danced in the minuet with Mrs. James 
Homer Maxwell, with whom as Miss 
Catharine Van Zandt he had repeatedly 
danced while the army was quartered at 
Morristown. When Washington entered 
the lists, dancing seemed to be elevated to 
the dignity of a function of the state, and 
in proof of the grace with which his Ex- 
cellency could tread a measure it is related 
that a French gentleman, after observing 
him in the dance, paid him the high com- 
pliment of saying that a Parisian education /' 
could not have rendered his execution ' 



V 



84 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

more admirable. Mrs. James Beekman,* 
born Jane Keteletas, was the belle of the 
de Moustier ball, a week later, and' gazing 
upon her serene face, framed in by a little 
cap of gauze and ribbon, that would have 
been trying to features less perfect, we can 
readily believe that she also occupied a 
prominent place in the inaugural festivities. 
Mrs. William Smith, who had returned 
from London, where her husband was 
Secretary of the American legation, was 
present, as was also Lady Temple, the 
American wife of Sir John Temple, British 
Consul-General, whom the Marquis de 
Chastellux found so distinguished that it 



* " The old Beekman house, built by James Beekman, 
and standing three miles from the City Hall in New 
York, was the scene of a number of interesting events. 
During the British possession of the city it was occupied 
by the commander-in-chief of their army, and one room 
at the head of a flight of stairs was occupied by Major 
Andre' the night before proceeding up the river on his 
ill-fated expedition to West Point, while (strange provi- 
dence) but a few yards distant still stands [184S] the 
green house where Captain Nathan Hale, of the Ameri- 
can army, received his trial and condemnation as a spy." 
— Jerome B. Holgate. 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 85 

was unnecessary to pronounce her beauti- 
ful. Her husband, Sir John, took upon 
himself " singular airs," says Mrs. William 
Smith, and this spirited little woman de- 
clined to visit my lady because she did 
not consider that Sir John treated her 
spouse with proper deference. Lady Chris- 
tiana Griffin was the Scotch wife of Cyrus 
Griffin, President of Congress, Although 
spoken of as being in poor health, she was 
one of the guests of the evening. 

Among New York women whose hus- 
bands held high positions in the new gov- 
ernment were Mrs. Alexander Hamilton ; 
Mrs. Ralph Izard, wife of the Senator from 
South Carolina, whose surname furnished 
Mrs. Bache a peg on which to hang her 
caustic bon-moi about hating everything 
South Carolinian from A to Z (izzard) ; 
Mrs. Robert R. Livingston, the daughter 
of Colonel Henry Beekman, whose hus- 
band had a week earlier administered the 
oath of office to the President ; Mrs. King, 
born Mary Alsop, of whose marriage to 
Rufus King John Adams speaks as "addi- 
tional bonds to cement the love between 



1/ 

1/ 



V 



86 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

New York and old Massachusetts ;" and 
Mrs. Elbridge Gerry, the beautiful wife 
of the Senator from Massachusetts, The 
' Rev. Manasseh Cutler visited the Gerrys 
when they were living in Philadelphia, and 
speaks of the beauty and accomplishments 
of the New York lady. He expressed to 
her his surprise that Philadelphia ladies 
rose so early, saying that he saw them at 
breakfast at half-past five, when in Boston 
they could hardly see a breakfast-table 
before nine without falling into hysterics. 
To which Mrs. Gerry replied that she had 
become inured to early rising and found it 
conducive to her health. 

Stately courtesy and dignity, combined 
with a certain simplicity begotten of pioneer 
living in a new country, seem to have been 
the distinguishing characteristics of this 
old-time society, and of the couple who 
presided over it and knew so well how to 
balance the functions of public office with 
the sacred demands of home life. 

In days of retirement at Mount Vernon, 
when engaged in instructing her maidens, 
or in household pursuits, Mrs. Washington 



i/ 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 8/ 

was always simply attired, and in cloth of 
home manufacture. She could, however, 
on occasions of state appear in rich cos- 
tumes of satin, velvet, and lace, while the 
President, although appearing at the in- 
augural ceremonies in a suit of cloth of 
American manufacture, on festal occa- 
sions donned the velvet and satin that so 
well became him. With his republicanism 
in national affairs, it is evident that Wash- 
ington inclined more to the state and cere- 
mony of Old-World courts than to the 
extreme, almost bald, simplicity that came 
in with a later administration. The state- 
ment of that unknown " Virginia colonel" 
who said that General Washington's " bows 
were more distant and stiff than anything 
he had seen at St. James's" savors of prob- 
ability, although disputed by some of his 
contemporaries, and Mr. Breck tells us 
that the President " had a stud of twelve 
or fourteen horses, and occasionally rode 
out to take the air with six horses to his 
coach, and always two footmen behind his 
carriage ;" adding, " He knew how to main- 
tain the dignity of his station. None of 



88 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

j his successors, except the elder Adams, has 

/ placed a proper value on a certain degree 

of display that seems suitable for the chief 
magistrate of a great nation. I do not 
mean pageantry, but the decent exterior 
of a well-bred gentleman." A President 
who thus realized all the dignity that his 
office implied naturally introduced a cer- 
tain amount of form and ceremony into the 
social life of the capital, and when Mrs. 
Washington came from Mount Vernon, on 
the 27th of May, receptions were held at 
the old Franklin house on Cherry Street, 
whose like, for a certain state and fine 
aroma of old-time courtesy, we shall never 
see again. Those who, " with the earliest 
attention and respect, paid their devoirs to 
the amiable consort of our beloved Presi- 
dent were," says one of the newspapers of 
the time, " the Ladies of the Most Hon. 
,^ Mr. Langdon [State Senator from New 
^ Hampshire] and the Most Hon. Mr. Dal- 
ton, the Mayoress [Mrs. James Duane], 
Mrs. Livingston of Clermont, Mrs. Chan- 
cellor Livingston, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. 
McComb, Mrs. Lynch, the Misses Bayard, 



/ 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 89 

and a great number of other respectable 
characters. Mrs. Washington from Phila- 
delphia was accompanied by the Lady of 
Mr. Robert Morris." We also learn that 
the President met his wife at Trenton, and 
that with a gayly-decorated and well- 
manned barge she made her journey to 
the seat of government. 

Although we are not disposed to agree 
with the Chevalier de Crevecceur, that " if 
there is a town on the American continent 
where English luxury displayed its follies, 
it was in New York," Philadelphia, with 
Mrs. William Bingham as its social leader, 
having continued to assert its supremacy 
in this line, we are willing to believe that 
there was a fair amount of both folly and 
luxury in the national capital. This gen- 
tleman, Saint-John de Crevecceur, some- 
time Consul-General at New York, was 
probably surprised to find anything ap- 
proaching civilization in this city and 
country, as he exclaims, " You will find 
here the English fashions. In the dress 
of the women you will see the most bril- 
liant silks, gauzes, hats, and borrowed 



9© THROUGH colonial doorways. 

hair." It is amusing, in this connection, 
to note the French gentleman's ideal of 
what a woman should be. He happened 
to be looking for a wife himself just then, 
and, like Solomon's perfect w^oman, she 
was expected to look well to the ways of 
her household, to be skilled in the spinning 
of flax and the making of cheese and but- 
ter, and withal she was to have her mind 
cultivated a little, just enough to enable 
her to enjoy reading with her husband. 

Mrs. William Smith, a less prejudiced 
observer than M. de Crevecoeur, in writing 
to her mother of a dinner at Chief Justice 
Jay's which was served a la mode frangaisc, 
says that there was more fashion and state 
in New York than she would fancy. Bris- 
sot de Warville speaks of another dinner, 
this one at the house of Cyrus Griffin, 
at which seven or eight women appeared 
dressed in great hats and plumes. If the 
hats were as graceful and becoming as 
that w^orn by Mrs. John Jay in her portrait 
by Pine, we have no word of censure for 
those old-time beauties, although a plumed 
hat does seem a rather peculiar finish to 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 9 1 

a dinner costume, almost as odd as Mrs. 
William Smith's elbow-sleeves, bare arms, 
and muff. 

At her formal receptions, which Mr. 
Daniel Huntingdon has represented in his 
famous picture, Mrs. Washington stood 
with the Cabinet ladies around her, stately- 
Mrs. Robert Morris by her side, herself 
the stateliest figure in the group. The 
President passed from guest to guest, ex- 
changing a word with one and another, 
and pleasing all by the fine courtesy of 
his manner. The lovely ladies and the 
dignified gentlemen, many of the latter 
with powdered heads and bag-wigs, like his 
Excellency, trooped up by twos and threes 
to pay their respects to the first lady in 
the land. If around the Chief Magistrate 
were gathered the great men of the nation, 
those who, like John Adams, Robert Mor- 
ris, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, 
had already impressed themselves deeply 
upon the past, and in connection with such 
younger minds as those of James Madison, 
Rufus King, Elbridge Gerry, and Oliver 
Ellsworth, the Cerberus of the Treasury, 



92 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

were destined to outline the serener his- 
tory of the future, Mrs. Washington num- 
bered in her RepubHcan Court the noblest 
and most beautiful women in the land. 
Among these were many who, like her, 
had shared with their husbands the anx- 
ieties of the Revolutionary period, — nota- 
bly, Mrs. General Knox, Mrs. Robert 
Morris, and Mrs. Adams, — while in a 
younger group were Mrs. Rufus King, 
who is described as singularly handsome, 
Mrs, Gerry, Mrs. George Clinton, Mrs. 
William Smith, John Adams's daughter, 
Mrs. Walter Livingston, whom General 
Washington had once entertained, in rustic 
style, when encamped near New York, and, 
not the least attractive among these lovely 
dames, Mrs. John Jay, a daughter of Gov- 
ernor Livingston, who shared with Mrs. 
William Bingham, of Philadelphia, the dis- 
tinction of being called the most beautiful 
and charming woman in America. Honors 
seem to have been easy between these two 
high-born dames, as both were beloved, 
admired, and feted at home and abroad. 
The Marquise de Lafayette, who enter- 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 93 

tained a warm friendship for Mrs. Jay, said, 
with charming simpHcity, that " Mrs. Jay 
and she thought ahke, that pleasure might 
be found abroad, but happiness only at 
home." All of Mrs. Jay's portraits repre- 
sent a face of such exquisite beauty that 
it is not difficult to imagine the furore she 
created at foreign and Republican courts. 
Does there not seem to have been an 
indefinable charm of exquisiteness and dig- 
nity about these old-time dames, like the 
fragrance that surrounds some fine and 
stately exotic ? They had abundant leisure 
to make their daily sacrifice to the graces, 
and they always appear before us in full 
toilette, — hair rolled or curled, slippers high 
of heel, and gown of stiff brocade or satin. 
We never catch these fair ladies en desha- 
bille, nor do we desire to do so ; their charm 
would as surely vanish before the inglorious 
ease of a loose morning gown and roomy 
slippers as does that of an American In- 
dian when he divests himself of his war- 
paint and feathers. We read with equa- 
nimity of some of the belles of the period 
sitting all night with their pyramidal heads 



/ 



94 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS, 

propped up against pillows, because the 
hair-dresser could not make his round 
without attending to some heads the night 
before the ball. This was " soieffrir pour 
etre belle" with a vengeance; yet, deeming 
it all in keeping with their stately elegance, 
for which they had to pay a price, we never 
stop to think of how their poor necks 
must have ached, choosing rather to dwell 
upon their triumphs when they entered 
the ball-room. We can hear Mr. Swan- 
wick, or some other poet of the day, pay 
them the most extravagant compliments, 
while lamenting the void left by the absence 
of another fair one : 

" Say why, amid the splendid rows 
Of graceful belles and polish'd beaux, 

Does not Markoe appear ? 
Has some intrusive pain dismay'd 
From festive scenes the lov'ly maid, 

Or does she illness fear?" 

Is it possible that Markoe could not get 
her head dressed in time, and thus missed 
the ball ? We wonder, and, wondering, 
lavish so much sympathy upon her for the 



NEW YORK BALLS AND RECEPTIONS. 9$ 

pleasure she has lost that we forget to 
moralize upon the impropriety of Mr. 
Swanvvick's paying such exaggerated com- 
pliments, which would turn the head of 
any girl of to-day. We of this generation 
reverse the order of nature ; like doting 
grandparents we enjoy the picturesque 
beauty of these stately ancestors, and, with 
never a thought of their higher good, re- 
tail their triumphs with enthusiasm, wish- 
ing that for one brief moment we could 
turn back and feel what they felt when 
their world was at their feet. It was a 
very small world, according to our ideas, 
but it was the largest that they knew, and 
it was all their own. 

What a gay pageant that old social life 
seems as it passes before us ! We almost 
forget that the picture is limned against 
the stern background of war, for it is one 
in which the shadows have all faded out, 
leaving only the bright colors upon the 
canvas. Let it remain so. Why should 
we weep over sorrows so long past? The 
sting has all gone from them, and surely W 
there can no harm come to this genera- 



96 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS, 

tion from dwelling upon the beauty and 
grace of those fair ladies, who ruled soci- 
ety in New York a hundred years ago, or 
upon the bravery and strength of the 
noble men who gathered around them. 
Sic transit gloria nmndi! cries the mor- 
alist; but the glory has not all passed 
away, as is proved by our lingering over 
it now, nor need it be quite effaced from 
the gay life of to-day, if hearts still beat 
as true under silk and broadcloth as did 
those of the fathers and mothers of the 
Republic beneath brocaded bodices and 
satin waistcoats. 




THE 

Amerjcam Philosophical' 
Society 



'N none of his schemes and foun- 
dations did Dr. Franklin more 
signally display the breadth 
and catholicity of his mind than 
v^ in his plan for the establishment, 
in the New World, of an association for 
the general diffusion of useful knowledge, 
to which the Old World should be tribu- 
tary, and from which it should in time be 
recipient. With this end in view, he, in 
1743, issued a proposal for the organiza- 
tion and government of an American Phil- 
osophical Society, whose object was to 
bring into correspondence with a central 
association in Philadelphia all scientists, 
E ^ 9 97 



/ 



98 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

philosophers, and inventors, on this con- 
tinent and in Europe. Bold as was this 
scheme in its breadth and reach, in its 
smaller details it was marked by the 
practical characteristics of the projector. 
The Hamiltons and Franklins might 
" dream dreams and see visions" to the 
end of the chapter ; but they would have 
framed no governments, or have founded 
no learned institutions destined to outlast 
the centuries, had not their ideality been 
well balanced by the strong common sense 
that Guizot calls " the genius of humanity," 
It was this union of the ideal and the prac- 
tical that caused Franklin to be so appre- 
ciated by the French. Mirabeau named 
him *' the sage of two worlds," with a 
larger grasp of thought than that of our 
own day, when he is still claimed, like the 
debatable baby brought to King Solomon, 
by two cities, — by Boston, in which he 
first saw the light, and by Philadelphia, in 
which he disseminated it so liberally. 

Although there is a vast amount of 
documentary evidence to prove that the 
American Philosophical Society was the 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 99 

direct outcome of Franklin's proposal of 
1743, and that before the breaking out of 
the war with Great Britain it was an active 
and useful organization, having a large 
native and foreign membership, two of 
Dr. Franklin's biographers have done but 
scant justice to his v/ork in this direction. 
Professor McMaster, in his recent interest- 
ing life of Franklin as a man of letters, 
dismisses his proposal to establish such 
a society as a failure ;* while Mr. Parton, 
after mentioning the fact of Franklin having 
founded the Philosophical Society, in ac- 
cordance with his proposal of 1743, adds, 
" The society was formed, and continued 
in existence for some years. Neverthe- 
less, its success was neither great nor per- 
manent, for at that day the circle of men 
capable of taking much interest in science 
was too limited for the proper support of 
such an organization." f 

As both of these historians mention the 

* Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters, by John 
Bach McMaster, p. 137. 

f Life of Benjamin P'ranklin, by James Parton, vol. i. 
p. 263. 



lOO THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Philosophical Society later, and Mr. Parton 
at some length in his Life of Jefferson, it 
is probable that they did not consider that 
this early society was identical with that 
which in 1767 took a fresh start, elected a 
number of influential members, and made 
for itself an enviable reputation in Europe 
and America, in the latter years of the 
century. Sparks and Bigelow, however, 
take what is, according to the historian 
of the society. Dr. Robert M. Patterson, a 
true view of the case, tracing it back, a 
continuous organization, to the proposal 
of Dr. Franklin issued in 1743. Indeed, 
they carry it back even further than this 
period, deriving it primarily from the old 
Junto of 1727. After describing the work- 
ings of the Junto, or Leather Apron So- 
ciety, formed from among Franklin's " in- 
genious acquaintance," a sort of debating 
club of clever young men, Jared Sparks 
says, " Forty years after its establishment, 
it became the basis of the American Phil- 
osophical Society, of which Franklin was 
the first president, and the published Trans- 
actions of which have contributed to the 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. lOI 

advancement of science and the diffusion 
of valuable knowledge in the United 
States." * As most of Franklin's projects 
were discussed in the congenial circle that 
composed the Junto, this statement does 
not conflict with that of Dr. Patterson. 

Dr. Franklin, in his proposal, gave a 
list of the subjects that were to claim the 
attention of these New World philosophers. 
It included " investigations in botany ; in 
medicine ; in mineralogy and mining ; in 
chemistry ; in mechanics ; in arts, trades, 
and manufactures ; in geography and to- 
pography ; in agriculture ;" and, lest some- 
thing should have been left out of this 
rather comprehensive list of subjects, it was 
added that the association should " give 
its attention to all philosophical experi- 
ments that let light into the nature of 
things, tend to increase the power of man 
over matter, and multiply the conveniences 
or pleasures of life." The duties of the sec- 
retary of the society were laid down, and 
were especially arduous, including much 

* Works of Franklin, by Jared Sparks, vol. ii. p. 9. 
9* 



102 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

foreign correspondence, in addition to the 
correcting, abstracting, and methodizing 
of such papers as required it. This office 
Dr. Frankhn took upon himself, saying, 
with a touch of modesty that seems a 
trifle strained, that he " would be secretary 
until they should be provided with one 
more capable." He, however, tells us in 
the Autobiography that he one day added 
humility to his list of virtues at the sug- 
gestion of a Quaker friend, and this form 
of expression may have been one of his 
self-imposed exercises. 

The Philosophical Society, once estab- 
lished, was destined to exert an important 
influence on American science, life, and 
letters. Among its members were literary 
men, statesmen, and artists, as well as 
scientists and inventors. Before its meet- 
ings were read learned papers on govern- 
ment, history, education, philanthropy, 
politics, religion, worship, above all, on 
common sense : these in addition to the 
numerous scientific papers, read and com- 
municated, while among its eulogiums and 
oraisons fiinebrcs, pronounced upon de- 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. IO3 

ceased members, are to be found composi- 
tions worthy of Bossuet. 

As early as 1769, the society had mem- 
bers in the different colonies, in the Bar- 
badoes, in Antigua, in Heidelberg and 
Stockholm ; while in Edinburgh the dis- 
tinguished Dr. William Cullen was a mem- 
ber, in London Dr. John Fothergill, and 
in Paris the learned Count de Buffon. At 
home it numbered such men as Francis 
Hopkinson, statesman and writer of prose 
and poetry ; Dr. Phineas Bond and his 
brother Thomas, both original members ; 
Dr. Adam Kuhn and Daniel Dulany, of 
Maryland. Upon these early lists we find 
Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, who was one 
of the committee appointed to prepare a 
design for a national seal ; Benjamin West ; 
John Dickinson, who was writing his 
" Farmer's Letters," destined to make him 
known on both sides of the sea ; and John 
Bartram, botanist to his majesty, who 
planted his celebrated botanical garden 
near Gray's Ferry, and built with his own 
hands the humble stone house, whose gable 
end bears his devout confession of faith : 



104 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

" 'Tis God Alone, Almighty Lord, 
The Holy One, by me Adored. 

John Bartram, 1770." 

A pioneer in this field, he is recognized as 
the greatest of American botanists, and, 
contrary to the rule generally prov^ed by 
great men's sons, had the satisfaction of 
seeing his studies successfully prosecuted 
by his son, William Bartram, who also 
contributed original papers to the society. 
Writing in 1744 to the Honorable Cad- 
wallader Colden, Lieutenant-Governor of 
New York, a distinguished scientist and 
original worker in certain lines. Dr. Frank- 
lin says, — 

" Happening to be in this City about some particular 
Affairs, I have the Pleasure of receiving yours of the 
28*'' past, here. And can now acquaint you, that a 
Society, as far as relates to Philadelphia, is actually 
formed, and has had several Meetings to mutual Satis- 
faction ; — assoon [5/V] as I get home, I shall send you a 
short Acct. of what has been done and proposed at 
these meetings." 

Here follows a list of members from Phila- 
delphia, New York, and New Jersey, to 
which the writer adds, — 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. IO5 

" Mr. Nicholls tells me of several other Gentlemen 
of this City [New York] that incline to encourage the 
Thing. — There are a Number of others in Virginia, 
Maryland, Carolina, and the New England States who 
we expect to join us assoon [«V] as they are acquainted 
that the Society has begun to form itself, I am, Sir, 
with much respect, 

" Your most hum'^ sev' 

" B. Franklin." * 

The Honorable Cadwallader Colden was 
one of the original members of the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Society, and took an 
active interest in its establishment and ad- 
vance. He and Dr. Franklin were intimate 
friends, and in the habit of communicating 
to each other their scientific discoveries. 
It was Dr. Colden who introduced into 
the study of botany in America the system 
of Linnaeus. 

One of the founders and the first presi- 
dent of this society was Mr. Thomas Hop- 
kinson, whom Dr. Franklin called his 
" ingenious friend," and to whom he ac- 
knowledges his indebtedness for demon- 

* Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 
pp. I, 2. 



/ 



I06 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

strating " the power of points to throw off 
the electrical fire." Another " ingenious 
friend," to whom he makes no profound 
acknowledgment, was the Rev. Ebenezer 
Kinnersley, a professor in the College of 
Philadelphia, to whom it is now generally 
conceded that Franklin owed much of his 
success in important electrical discoveries. 
Mr. Parton says that, in 1748, " Mr. Kin- 
nersley contrived the amusing experiment 
of the magical picture. A figure of his 
majesty King George II. (' God preserve 
him,' says the loyal Franklin, in paren- 
thesis, when telling the story) was so ar- 
ranged that any one who attempted to 
take his crown from his head received a 
tremendous shock." By this clever con- 
trivance Mr. Kinnersley proves himself 
something of a prophet as well as a scien- 
tist, for notwithstanding the violent shock 
received by the friends of royalty in the 
colonies, a few years later, it was conclu- 
sively demonstrated that the crown could 
be taken off. 

In drawing up rules for the government 
of the Philosophical Society, Dr. Franklin 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. lO/ 

advises that correspondence be maintained 
not only between the central organization 
and its members in the different colonies, 
but with the Royal Society of London and 
the Dublin Society, Thus persons residing 
in remote districts of the United States 
would be placed in direct communication 
with the latest discoveries of Old World 
scientists in all their lines of work. What 
such correspondence meant to men of 
intelligence, living far from the centres of 
education and enlightenment, in those days 
of few books and fewer magazines and 
journals, it is impossible for us to imagine. 
Many years later, when the French bot- 
anist, Andre Michaux, was appointed by 
his government to examine the trees of 
this continent, with a view to their intro- 
duction into France, he carried letters from 
the Philosophical Society to one of its 
members, living in Lexington, Kentucky. 

" During my stay at Lexington," Michaux writes, " I 
frequently saw Dr. Samuel Brown, from Virginia, a 
physician of the College of Edinburgh, and a member 
of the Philosophical Society. . . . Receiving regularly 
the scientific journals from London, he is always in the 



I08 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

channel of new discoveries, and turns them to the ad- 
vantage of his fellow-citizens. It is to him that they 
are indebted for the introduction of the cow-pox. He 
had at that time inoculated upwards of five hundred 
persons in Kentucky, when they were making their first 
attempts in New York and Philadelphia." 



Agreeable as it must have been to Mi- 
chaux to find flowers of science blooming 
in these western wilds, we can imagine the 
even greater delight that such a man as 
Dr. Bi"own must have experienced in meet- 
ing and conversing with this foreigner, 
fresh from Old World haunts of learning, 
with his interesting budget of news, po- 
litical as well as scientific. Those were 
the exciting days of the Consulate in 
France, when Lord Nelson was gaining 
victories for England in the Northern seas ; 
and we can picture to ourselves these two 
learned gentlemen, seated before a great 
fire of logs, with a steaming bowl of punch, 
made from the famous Kentucky apple- 
jack, beside them, turning away from the 
paths of science to discuss Napoleon's vic- 
tories, the coalition against England, and 
the assassination of the Emperor Paul in 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. IO9 

Russia, which was followed by a treaty 
between his successor and the English 
sovereign. 

American science must have been in a 
condition of encouraging activity between 
1750 and 1767, for in those years there 
were no less than three societies in Phila- 
delphia whose aims and pursuits were in 
the main identical, — the promotion of use- 
ful knowledge and the drawing together 
of its votaries. These societies were a 
second Junto, of which the indefatigable 
Dr. Franklin was a member, the American 
Philosophical Society, and the American 
Society. This division in the ranks of 
science probably arose from the feeling 
existing between the adherents of the 
Penn family and those averse to them ; 
these parties being as violently opposed to 
each other as were, later, Federalist and 
Democratic-Republican ; or, still later, the 
Whig and Democratic parties. Happily 
for the historian, who is sadly confused by 
Juntos and Juntolings, and by American 
Societies which were philosophical, and 
Philosophical Societies which were also 



no THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

American, these different bodies showed a 
disposition to unite, and in 1769 were in- 
corporated into one society, under the title 
of American Philosophical Society, held at 
Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowl- 
edge. This title proving a trifle " unhandy 
for every-day use," to borrow the phrase- 
ology of a patriotic farmer's wife, who be- 
stowed upon one of her offspring the 
entire heading of the Republican ticket 
in i860, "Abraham Lincoln Hannibal 
Hamlin," it has gradually been abbrevi- 
ated into the American Philosophical So- 
ciety, there being now no other. 

Of this united society Dr. Franklin was 
elected president, the first of an honorable 
line of presidents, whose portraits adorn 
the walls of the old rooms on Fifth Street, 
where the philosophers met more than a 
hundred years ago. The society obtained 
a grant of land from the State of Pennsyl- 
vania in 1785, and in 1787 its hall was com- 
pleted, the one still used, in whose sunshiny 
rooms are now gathered the relics, the 
treasures, and the memories of a century. 
Here is the old chair on whose broad arm 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I I I 

Jefferson wrote the Declaration, and here 
are autograph letters and autographs of 
such value as to fill the soul of the col- 
lector with " envy, hatred, and malice, and 
all uncharitableness." On one side of the 
hall is the well-known and most character- 
istic portrait of Dr. Franklin,* in his blue 
coat, large wig, and spectacles, while near / ^ 
by is his marble effigy by Houdon, whose 
statue of Washington bears the proud 
inscription, ''Fait par Hoiidon, citoycn Fran- 
gais." 

Over the society Dr. Franklin presided 
for a term of many years, from 1769 until 
his death in 1790. Brissot de Warville, 
coming to Philadelphia in 1788, exclaims, 
with devoutness hardly to be expected 
from a Frenchman, " Thanks be to God, 
he still exists ! This great man, for so 
many years the preceptor of the Ameri- 
cans, who so gloriously contributed to 
their independence ; death had threatened 



* Charles Willson Peale's copy of Martin's Franklin, 
the original of which is owned by Mr. Henry Pratt 
McKean. 



112 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

his days, but our fears are dissipated, and 
his health is restored." Two years later 
the same chronicler records, " Franklin has 
enjoyed this year the blessing of death, for 
which he waited so long a time." 

As president of the Philosophical So- 
ciety, he was succeeded, in 1791, by Dr. 
Rittenhouse, the greatest American astron- 
omer, of whom Jefferson said, " We have 
supposed Rittenhouse second to no astron- 
omer living ; in genius he must be first, 
because he is self-taught." It was he who 
contributed to the society the first purely 
scientific paper in its series of Transactions, 
a calculation on the transit of Venus. He 
also described a wonderful orrery, which 
represented the revolution of the heavenly 
bodies more completely than it had ever 
been done before, and which he had him- 
self constructed at the age of twenty-three. 
In June, 1769, he made observations on 
the transit of Venus. " The whole horizon 
was without a cloud," says Rittenhouse, in 
his report of this event ; and so greatly 
excited was the young astronomer that, in 
the instant of one of the contacts of the 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. II 3 

planet with the sun, he actually fainted 
with emotion. Rittenhouse's interesting 
report on this phenomenon, which had 
never been seen but twice before by any 
inhabitant of the earth, was received with 
satisfaction by learned and scientific men 
everywhere. Those who visit the hall of 
the society to-day may look out upon the 
State-House yard from the same window 
through which Rittenhouse made his ob- 
servations, and note the passing hours upon 
the face of a clock constructed by his 
hands, which, the curator, says, " still keeps 
good time." 

Prominent among the portraits of early 
officers is an interesting picture of Thomas 
Jefferson, who was third president of the 
Philosophical Society, as well as of the 
United States. This painting, which well 
portrays the intellectual and spirited face 
of the original, was executed at Monticello 
by Mr. Sully, who was invited there for 
this purpose. Jefferson, who would have 
been a great scientist had he not been 
called upon by his country to use his 
powers as a statesman, naturally took a 

h lo* 



114 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

warm interest in the Philosophical Society, 
and was a member long before he was 
made its president in 1797. While abroad 
he disputed the arguments of the learned 
Count de Buffon on the degeneracy of 
American animals, and finally made his 
position secure by sending the astonished 
Frenchman the bones, skin, and horns 
of an enormous New Hampshire moose. 
Equally convincing was this, and more 
agreeable than the manner in which Dr. 
Franklin answered a similar argument on 
the degeneracy of American men, by 
making all the Americans at table, and all 
the Frenchmen, stand up. As those of 
his compatriots present happened to be 
fine specimens physically, towering above 
the little Gauls, the good doctor had the 
argument all his own way. 

It seemed, indeed, as if these two great 
men, who so harmoniously combined the 
ideal and the practical, were born to prove 
to the world that genius of the highest 
order, in science, letters, and statecraft, is 
not incompatible with the same sort of 
ability that is essential to the success of a 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I I 5 

Western farmer or a skilled mechanic. 
Hence, if Dr. Franklin employed his leisure 
hours in inventing an improved stove, or 
explaining to the Philosophical Society 
why certain chimneys smoked ; Mr. Jef- 
ferson used his in designing a plough, 
for which he received a gold medal from 
France, and in calculating the number of 
bushels of wheat to the acre, at Monti- 
cello. One day, he is interesting himself 
in the importation of seed-rice from Italy, 
from the Levant, and from Egypt ; while 
on another, he is helping the Philosophical 
Society to frame instructions for the gui- 
dance of Andre Michaux in his Western 
explorations. It was life that interested 
them both, — life in the smaller details that 
affect home comfort, as well as in the 
broader issues that bear upon the happi- 
ness of states and nations. In Mr. Jeffer- 
son's minute directions regarding the edu- 
cation of his daughters, and in his grasp 
of the details of farming, we recognize the 
same sort of practical common sense that 
so eminently distinguished Dr. Franklin^ 
of whom his latest biographer says, in 



Il6 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAVS. 

his own forcible and epigrammatic style, 
— "Whatever he has said on domestic 
economy, or thrift, is sound and striking. 
No other writer has left so many just and 
original observations on success in life. 
No other writer has pointed out so clearly 
the way to obtain the greatest amount of 
comfort out of life. What Solomon did 
for the spiritual man, that did Franklin for 
the earthly man. The book of Proverbs 
is a collection of receipts for laying up 
treasure in heaven. ' Poor Richard ' is a 
collection of receipts for laying up treasure 
on earth." * 

In addition to its regular meetings for 
business and for scientific purposes, the 
Philosophical Society had its gala days, its 
annual dinners, and its especial receptions 
and entertainments given to distinguished 
strangers. Hither, in 1794, came the Rev. 
Joseph Priestley, of Birmingham, counted 
in France too devout for a scientist, and in 
England too broad for the clergy. As the 



* Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letcers, by John 
Bach McMaster, p. 277. 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. II 7 

discoverer of oxygen, the friend of Frank- 
lin, whose experiments in electricity he had 
described, and a devotee to the cause of 
liberty, Dr. Priestley was warmly welcomed 
by the Philosophical Society, which not 
only received him into its own learned 
brotherhood, but adopted him into Ameri- 
can citizenship. This first reception was 
followed by a dinner given by the learned 
coterie in honor of Dr. Priestley. 

Many anecdotes of these old dinners 
have been handed down, showing that 
when the good philosophers put science 
aside they could be as lively raconteurs 
and tons vivants as the world has ever seen. 
On such festive occasions, the witty old 
Abbe Correa de Serra, Judge Peters, Mr. 
Du Ponceau, Dr. Caspar Wistar, Mr. John 
Vaughan, and later, Robert Walsh, LL.D., 
and the Honorable William Short of Vir- 
ginia, both most delightful talkers, George 
Ord, William Strickland the architect, and 
the ever-ready wits Dr. Nathaniel Chap- 
man and Nicholas Biddle, gathered around 
the board. 

Of Judge Peters's clever sayings we find 



Il8 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

numerous records. As he grew older, his 
sharp nose and chin approached each other 
closely. A friend observed to him, one 
day, that his nose and chin would soon be 
at loggerheads. " Very likely," he replied, 
" for hard words often pass between them." 
Once, while he was Speaker of the House 
of Assembly, one of the members, in 
crossing the room, tripped on the carpet 
and fell flat. The House burst into laugh- 
ter, while the judge, with the utmost 
gravity, cried, " Order, order, gentlemen ! 
Do you not see that a member is on the 
floor ?" Unceremonious, communicative, 
friendly. Judge Peters was the life of every 
circle that he entered ; correcting Mayor 
Wharton at a dinner when he called to the 
waiter, " John, more wine," saying that it 
was a dcmi]ohn that he needed, while he 
himself " drank like a fish," as he expressed 
it, from his goblet of water, requiring no 
artificial aid to brighten wits that were 
always keen and scintillating. 

Mr. George Ord, who was a delightful 
raconteur as well as a learned naturalist, 
took great pleasure in relating a story 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I I9 

of his friend Dr. Abercrombie, a fellow- 
member of the society. Dr. James Aber- 
crombie, sometime rector of Christ and 
St. Peter's Churches, was a divine of the 
old school, who despised not the good 
things of this lower world while engaged 
in preparation for those of the higher. 
Once, while on a pastoral visit to the 
small town of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, 
where an Episcopal church had been es- 
tablished. Dr. Abercrombie was regaled 
with some very fine old Madeira wine, 
which he drank with evident appreciation, 
and probably some surprise at finding 
anything so choice in that region of the 
country. The next day, according to Mr. 
Ord's story, the good parson chose for his 
text that most appropriate verse from the 
Acts of the Apostles, in which St. Paul 
says, " And the barbarous people showed 
us no little kindness." 

Another clerical member of the learned 
fraternity was William White, one of our 
early American bishops, who was an ardent 
patriot and a genial companion, as well as 
the most devout of churchmen. A warm 



120 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

friend of Benjamin West, the artist, Bishop 
White was fond of teUing how he helped 
West to secure his bride, Miss Betty Shew- 
ell. Mr. West was in England, and so 
busy painting for the court and royal fam- 
ily that he could not come over to America 
to marry his fiancee ; but, as his father 
was about to sail for England, he wrote 
to Miss Shewell, begging her to join his 
father, and make the voyage with him. 
Miss Shewell's brother, who was averse to 
the match, chiefly because West was an 
impecunious genius, put a stop to the 
proceedings by confining the fair bride- 
elect in an upper room. Bishop White, 
then a very young man. Dr. Franklin, and 
Mr. Francis Hopkinson determined to help 
on the " course of true love" by facilitating 
Miss Shewells escape to the ship, which 
was waiting for her at Chester. This they 
did by means of a romantic rope-ladder 
and a carnage around the corner. Miss 
Shewell with her maid reached the ship 
in good time, and a few weeks after was 
married to Benjamin West in the English 
chapel of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, In 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 121 

telling this story, the kindly bishop was 
wont to add, gleefully, " Ben was a good 
fellow, and deserved a good wife, and I 
would do the same thing over again to- 
day," — a sentiment, we may be sure, that 
was greeted with applause by the gravest 
of the philosophers, they being no excep- 
tion to the rule that " all the world loves 
a lover." An active member of the so- 
ciety, and for years one of its counsellors, 
Bishop White was present on all important 
occasions, grave or gay. Having known 
General Washington and the other great 
men of the Revolution, and met and con- 
versed with Samuel Johnson while in Eng- 
land, his was one of the few familiar faces 
that greeted the Marquis de Lafayette 
when he revisited America in 1824. 

Another face to be seen for many suc- 
cessive years at the meetings of the society, 
and at its annual dinners, was that of Peter 
S. Du Ponceau, the French lawyer and 
philologist, who lived here for so many 
years. He has left behind him pictures 
of some of his learned associates that 
prove to us that these gentlemen, whose 



122 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

faces look down upon us gravely from 
century-old portraits, were, on occasions, 
as full of quips and quirks and fun and 
frolic as the most jovial collegian of our 
day. Of his frequent journeys to Wash- 
ington to attend the sessions of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, in com- 
pany with Mr. Ingersoll, Mr. William 
Rawle, Mr. Lewis, and ]\Ir. Edward Tilgh- 
man, he says, — 

" As soon as we were out of the city and felt the flush 
of air, we were like school-boys in the playground on a 
holiday; and we began to kill lime by all the means 
that our imagination could suggest. Flashes of wit 
shot their coruscations on all sides ; puns of the genuine 
Philadelphia stamp were handed about ; old college 
stories were revived ; macaroni Latin was spoken with 
great purity ; songs were sung, — even classical songs, 
among which I recollect the famous Bacchanalian of the 
Archdeacon of Oxford, Mihi est proposituni in taherna 
mori; in short, we might have been taken for anything 
else but the grave counsellors of the celebrated bar of 
Philadelphia." 

Mr. Du Ponceau it is who is accredited 
with the well-known story of the lawyer 
whose client came in and deposed that 
" his brother had died and made a will." 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 1 23 

A gentleman who read law with the face- 
tious Frenchman relates that it was only 
when a fee was placed in Mr. Du Ponceau's 
hand that he translated the phrase into, 
" Ah ! you mean that your brother made 
a will and died." We can imagine the 
laugh with which the philosophers would 
greet this most practical of jokes. 

Quite as celebrated as the dinners of the 
society were Mr. John Vaughan's break- 
fasts, which held the same prominence in 
the social life of the time as Dr. Wistar's 
evening parties or as the Sunday afternoon 
vespers of Mr. Henry C. Carey, where, dur- 
ing the late war, and after its close, soldiers, 
politicians, statesmen, and civilians met to- 
gether and discussed the great issues and 
events that shook the nation from i860 
to 1865. So at Mr. Vaughan's breakfasts 
were discussed the agitating questions of 
the last decade of the century, Federalists 
and Democratic-Republicans, as they were 
beginning to be called, meeting together 
around his hospitable board. Mr. Vaughan 
himself was a Federalist, although not a 
violent partisan. Riding, one day, with 



124 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Mr. Jefferson, his horse became unmanage- 
able, disturbing somewhat Mr. Vaughan's 
serenity, upon which the latter, gathering 
his reins firmly, muttered under his breath, 
" This horse — this horse is as bad as a 
Democrat !" " Oh, no," replied the high- 
priest and leader of the party ; " if he were 
a Democrat, he would have thrown yoii 
long ago." Mr. Vaughan, for many years 
librarian and treasurer of the society, had 
his rooms in the building on Fifth Street, 
in one of which, before its generous old- 
fashioned fireplace and high carved mantel, 
Washington sat for his well-known portrait 
by the elder Peale. The general, whom 
Mr. Vaughan numbered among his friends, 
had already been elected a member of the 
society ; but we find iow records of his 
presence at its meetings or at the famous 
breakfasts. One of these breakfasts, given 
in the latter years of Mr. Vaughan's life, is 
still remembered by Dr. William H. Fur- 
ness, then a young man, recently come 
from New England to take charge of the 
First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. 
The breakfast lasted from nine until one. 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 1 25 

Whether the guests breakfasted upon 
roast peacocks and nightingales' tongues, 
or upon plain beefsteak and chops, Dr. 
Furness does not remember; but he will 
never forget the circle gathered around 
that table. There were John Quincy 
Adams, Colonel Drayton of South Caro- 
lina, Mr. Du Ponceau, and Dr. Channing, 
who exercised such an influence on the 
religious thought of New England, and 
of whom the orthodox clergy were wont 
to say that his theology was " Calvinism 
with the bones taken out." A goodly 
company of leading minds, "joined later," 
says Dr. Furness, by Albert Gallatin and 
the Rev. William Ware, pastor of the 
First Unitarian Church in New York. 
Among other visitors of note entertained 
by Mr. Vaughan were Sir Charles Lyell, 
and George Robins Gliddon, the Egyp- 
tologist, who were both in this country 
about 1 84 1. 

Mr. John Vaughan, whose most dis- 
tinguishing trait was love for his fellow- 
men, whom, it was said, he took more 
delig;ht in servins: than most men take in 



126 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

making and hoarding dollars, belonged to 
a family distinguished in statesmanship, 
letters, and affairs. The Vaughan brothers 
were of English birth, sons of Samuel 
Vaughan, a London merchant trading with 
America. The most prominent of this 
large family was Benjamin Vaughan, M.D., 
LL.D., sometime secretary to Lord Shel- 
burne, and acting as confidential messenger 
in the peace negotiations between Great 
Britain and America in 1783. Deeply 
tinctured with the revolutionary spirit of 
the time, a liberal to the extent of admir- 
ing the system of the Directory in France, 
and writing in favor of it, Benjamin 
Vaughan finally found it expedient to quit 
the Old World for the more congenial 
political atmosphere of the New. He 
settled in Hallowell, Maine, as did his 
brother Charles, where descendants of the 
name still reside. The death of Dr. 
Benjamin Vaughan, of Hallowell, was 
announced to the society in 1836, and 
Mr. Merrick, his kinsman, was appointed 
to prepare a notice of him. Another 
brother, Samuel, settled in Jamaica ; Wil- 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 12/ 

Ham, the successful banker of the family, 
remained in London ; while John, one of 
the younger brothers, came to Philadelphia, 
where he established himself as a wine 
merchant, and a prominent member of the 
First Unitarian Church. Generous to a 
fault, " Johnny Vaughan," as his intimates 
were wont to call him, seems to have 
objected to parting with but one single 
earthly possession, — his umbrella. A lady 
who knew Mr. Vaughan when he was a very 
old gentleman remembers one of flaming 
red, whose color should have insured its 
staying qualities. A story is also told of 
his having printed on the outside of another 
one in large characters, " This umbrella 
was stolen from John Vaughan." One 
day a friend of Mr. Vaughan's started off 
with this umbrella, and, quite unconscious 
of its equivocal inscription, hoisted it in 
broad day. Mr. Vaughan's Portuguese 
office boy, who could speak or read no 
English, but who knew the umbrella, and 
what the printing stood for, chanced to 
meet the gentleman who carried it, and 
with speechless but entire devotion to his 



12S THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

master's interests followed it, and " froze 
on to it," as the narrator expressed it, with 
such persistency that the holder was fain 
to relinquish it and make his escape from 
the jeers of the by-standers. 

It was over such a circle of learned men 
and bcaiix-csprits that Mr. Jefferson was 
called to preside, when he came to Phila- 
delphia, in 1797, to act as Vice-President of 
the United States in an uncongenial Fed- 
eral administration. It is not strange that, 
with his scholarly and scientific tastes, he 
found in the rooms of the Philosophical 
Society a grateful retreat from political 
wrangling and the cares of state. Party 
feeling ran so high, at this period, that 
" social intercourse between members of 
the two parties ceased," says Mr. Parton, 
" and old friends crossed the street to avoid 
saluting one another. Jefferson declined 
invitations to ordinary social gatherings, 
and spent his leisure hours in the circle 
that met in the rooms of the Philo- 
sophical Society." Not that its member- 
ship was Republican, many of its prominent 
members being Federalists ; notably, Dr. 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I 29 

Benjamin Rush, Chief Justice Tilghman, 
Judge Peters, Jared Ingersoll, who was 
Federalist candidate for the Vice-Presi- 
dency of the United States in 18 12, Dr. 
Robert Patterson, and Mr. Du Ponceau. 
This was a place, however, where science, 
art, and literature occupied the ground and 
where politics and party differences were 
forgotten in the discussion of some subject 
that touched the general weal, as when Dr. 
Caspar Wistar discovered a new bone ; or 
Robert Patterson presented a paper on 
improved ship-pumps ; or Jonathan Wil- 
liams one on a new mode of refining sugar ; 
or when John Fitch exhibited " the model, 
with a drawing and description, of a ma- 
chine for working a boat against the stream 
by means of a steam-engine ;" or, later, 
when Mr. Charles Goodyear was induced, 
by Franklin Peale, to demonstrate to the 
society that vulcanized rubber could be 
made from the juice of the calmcJm tree. 
And here, as if to prove that science and 
religion may be allied in closest union, 
came two distinguished Moravian divines, 
John Heckewelder and the Rev. Lewis de 



130 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Schweinitz, the latter with his " Sjniopsis 
Ftingoruvi in America y 

John Adams, the FederaHst President, 
was a member of the Philosophical Society, 
and speaks of it with warm admiration. 
Comparing Massachusetts and Pennsyl- 
vania, he says, in one of his letters to his 
wife, — 

" Particular gentlemen here [in Philadelphia], who 
have improved upon their education by travel, shine ; 
but in general old Massachusetts outshines her younger 
sisters. Still, in several particulars they have more wit 
than we. They ha\'e societies, the Philosophical .Society 
particularly, which excites a scientific emulation, and 
propagates their fame. If ever I get through this scene 
of politics and war, I will spend the remainder of my 
days in endeavoring to instruct my countrymen in the 
art of making the most of their abilities and virtues, an 
art which they have hitherto too much neglected. A 
philosophical society shall be established at Boston, if I 
have wit and address enough to accomplish it, some 
time or other. Pray, set Brother Cranch's philosophical 
head plodding upon this project. Many of his lucubra- 
tions would have been ])ublished and preserved for the 
benefit of mankind, and for his honor, if such a club had 
existed." 

Mr. Madison, who was far more con- 
genial to Mr. Jefferson, politically, than the 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I3I 

sturdy New Englander, had been for years 
a member of the society ; but he was out 
of office now, and hving quietly at his rural 
home in Orange County, Virginia. It was 
during his residence here, in 1794, that the 
sprightly widow, who afterwards became 
his wife, writes of her first meeting with 
" the great little Madison." She tells us, 
in her charming letters, that Aaron Burr 
brought him to see her. On this occasion 
she wore " a mulberry-colored satin, with 
a silk tulle kerchief over her neck, and on 
her head an exquisitely dainty little cap, 
from which an occasional uncropped curl 
would escape.'' 

These were still days of picturesque 
dressing, with both men and women. 
" Jeffersonian simplicity" had not yet come 
in, in full force. Watson, the annalist, 
describes Mr. Jefferson, a few years earlier, 
in " a long-waisted white cloth coat, scarlet 
breeches and vest, a cocked hat, shoes and 
buckles, and white silk hose," — an elegant 
figure, the life and centre of the group of 
men gathered together in the society's 
rooms on Fifth Street. The great Ritten- 



132 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

house had, in 1797, set forth upon a wider 
range among the stars ; but Dr. Benjamin 
Rush was tliere, — physician, scientist, phi- 
lanthropist, and statesman, a host in him- 
self. His kindly face and the recollections 
of his contemporaries tell us that he was 
a pleasant companion, with all his learning, 
which cannot always be said of the learned 
ones of the earth. There also was the 
Rev. William Smith, first provost of the 
University of Pennsylvania, a man of sci- 
ence as well as an able divine ; Dr. Barton, 
nephew of Dr. Rittenhouse, an original 
worker, who contributed largely to the 
scientific literature of the day, and gave to 
Americans their first elementary treatise 
on botany ; and Dr. Caspar Wistar, the 
learned physician and genial companion, 
who not only enriched the society by his 
own work and teachings, but by his corre- 
spondence with Humboldt and Soemmer- 
ing in Germany, Camper in Holland, Syl- 
vester in Geneva, Pole and Hope in Great 
Britain, and many more of that ilk, kept 
its members en rapport with scientific work 
abroad. Dr. Wistar succeeded Dr. Rush 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 1 33 

as President of the Pennsylvania Abolition 
Society, which early uttered its protest 
against slavery. Nor was Dr. Wistar 
solely interested in the cause of the negro ; 
that of the American Indian, which we are 
wont to regard as one of the latest fads in 
the philanthropic world, also engaged his 
attention at this early date. 

Dr. Wistar was elected president of the 
Philosophical Society on the resignation 
of Mr. Jefferson, in 181 5. Some years 
prior to this. Dr. Wistar introduced to its 
circle the Baron von Humboldt, whom he 
invited to that smaller coterie of learned 
men, at his own house, which composed 
the Wistar Club. A gala day it must have 
been at the Philosophical Society when it 
opened its doors to this greatest naturalist 
of his time, perhaps of any time. The 
Baron von Humboldt was returning from 
an extended tour in South America, Mex- 
ico, and the West Indies. His young 
friends Montufar and Bonpland were with 
him, — the same Bonpland who later gave 
the Empress Josephine flower-seeds from 
the West Indies to plant at Malmaison, 
12 



134 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

who became her intendant there, and 
who stood by her bedside when she was 
dying. 

Another attractive figure in this group 
of learned men is William Tilghman, Chief 
Justice of Pennsylvania, the sound lawyer, 
ripe scholar, and true gentleman, as his 
biographer calls him. Perhaps the highest 
praise we can award to him now is to re- 
cord that, although Southern born and 
owning slaves, he expressed, with regard 
to slavery, a " fervent wish to see the evils 
of this institution mitigated, and if possible 
extinguished," freeing his own slaves by a 
plan of gradual emancipation. Mr. Tilgh- 
man was connected through his mother, 
Anne Francis, with the supposed author 
of the Letters of Junius ; and, curiously 
enough, the strongest evidence yet found 
that the letters were written by Sir Philip 
Francis has come through correspondence 
with his American relatives. Interesting 
as is all that relates to this literary puzzle 
of more than a century, the incident that 
led to the recent discoveries is like a conte 
de fees, turning upon some anonymous 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 1 35 

verses sent to a lady at Bath, in which she 
is told that 

" In the School of the Graces, by Venus attended, 
Belinda improves every hour." 

The fair " Belinda," Miss Giles in every- 
day life, is quite sure ihat the clever verses 
came from Sir Philip Francis, who danced 
with her through a whole evening at Bath. 
In fact, she recognized the handwriting 
of some of Woodfall's fac-similes of the 
letters of Junius. She has an anonymous 
note that accompanied the verses, which 
is, she thinks, very like the Junius hand- 
writing. The investigation becomes ex- 
citing ; the experts, Messrs. Chabot and 
Netherclift, study the note and verses pro- 
foundly, and finally come to the conclusion 
that Junius might have written the note, but 
not the verses. The Hon. Edward Twisle- 
ton is deeply interested in the search, and 
is loath to give up this promising leading, 
when lo ! there comes from over the sea 
a letter, nearly a hundred years old, in 
which Richard Tilghman, in Philadelphia, 
writes to his cousin. Sir Philip Francis, — 



136 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

" You are very tenacious of your epigram. I observe 
you contend for it, as if your reputation as a Poet de- 
pended on it. I did not condemn the Composition, I 
only said that it was not an Original, and I say so still ; 
but yet I am ready to allow that you can weave Originals, 
because in the School of the Graces by Venus attended, 
Belinda improves every Hour." 

Was not this a coincidence ? The Fran- 
ciscans were delighted, especially as the 
experts were ready to affirm that the hand- 
writing of the verses was that of Richard 
Tilghman, and that it was evident that he 
had copied the verses for Sir Philip. As 
if to make all complete, it was found that 
Richard Tilghman was at Bath, with his 
kinsman, at the time the verses were sent. 
Nothing, that has not been absolutely 
proven, has ever come closer to proof, and 
so it remains the Tantalus cup of the lit- 
terateur, although there are many who find 
the evidence quite conclusive that Francis 
and Junius were one and the same. 

Charles Willson Peale, the artist, known 
as the elder Peale, was curator of the 
Philosophical Society for many years, and 
one of its most active members. He did 
good work in many lines, being a man of 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I 3/ 

scientific tastes and large public spirit. 
The society owes him a debt of gratitude 
for handing down to this generation por- 
traits of its most illustrious officers and 
members. Mr. Peale rented a number of 
rooms in the" old house on Fifth Street, 
having his museum in the building, and 
bringing up there his family of artist chil- 
dren, Raphael, Rembrandt, Titian, Van- 
dyck, and Rubens, — names still known in 
American art, that of Rembrandt being 
the most distinguished. In 1796 Mr. 
Peale presented to the assembled philoso- 
phers a son four months and four days 
old, born in the building, requesting them 
to name him. The society, upon this, 
unanimously agreed that the child should 
be called Franklin, after their chief founder 
and first president. " Frankhn Peale," says 
his biographer, " did not disgrace his spon- 
sors. He grew up thoughtful and philo- 
sophical." His genius was in the mechan- 
ical line. He was one of the founders of 
the Franklin Institute, and for many years 
discharged with great ability the office of 
chief coiner at the United States Mint. 



138 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

One of Mr. Peak's friends, who became 
an active and valued member of the so- 
ciety, was the learned Abbe de Serra, 
Portuguese Minister to the United States, 
This reverend gentleman scandalized Mrs. 
Peale, whose neatness was phenomenal, by 
appearing at her door so dusty and shabby 
(he was not a handsome man at his best) 
that the dainty Quakeress waved him away 
from her spotless threshold, saying, " No, 
my good man, I have no time to attend to 
you now ;" little thinking that the " good 
man" was the expected guest in whose 
honor she had donned her best satin gown, 
and prepared a savory repast, whose crown- 
ing triumph was a dish of asparagus from 
Mr. Peak's garden, then a greater rarity 
than now. The Abbe had been on a geo- 
logical tramp with Mr. Peale, and when 
that gentleman rallied his wife on treating 
his friend and guest like a beggar, the 
excellent lady justified herself by saying 
that, after all, he could not be much of a 
gentleman, as he " helped himself to the 
asparagus with his fingers ;" eating it, of 
course, after the French fashion. 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I 39 

Another habitue of Mr. Peak's house, 
and a frequent attendant at the meetings 
of the society, was Charles Lucien Bona- 
parte, Prince de Canino. He was the 
nephew and son-in-law of Joseph Bona- 
parte, ex-king of Spain, and while in 
America resided in a house on the estate 
of his uncle, near Bordentown, New Jersey. 
This young prince pursued his studies in 
ornithology in the United states, making 
important contributions to the works of 
Wilson. A man of wide scientific knowl- 
edge, and a member of nearly all the 
learned societies of Europe, the Prince de 
Canino gave a decided impulse to the study 
of natural history in Italy, which was his 
home, and while in Philadelphia was an 
active and interested member of the Phil- 
osophical Society, contributing original 
papers and making valuable donations of 
books to its library. 

A few women of distinguished ability 
have been, early and late, members of 
the Philosophical Society : notably Mary 
Somerville, the English astronomer; Pro- 
fessor Maria Mitchell, of Vassar ; and Mrs. 



140 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Agassiz, wife of the late Professor Louis 
Agassiz. The earhest woman member was 
the Russian Princess Daschkof, lady-in- 
waiting to the Empress Catherine II. A 
great traveller, for those days, the princess 
profited by all that she saw and heard in 
the countries which she visited. A student 
and an observer, the friend of Diderot in 
France, and associating in Edinburgh with 
such men as Dr. Blair, Adam Smith, and 
Ferguson, she returned to Russia to become 
director of the Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences, and later to establish another acad- 
emy for the improvement and cultivation 
of the Russian language. Of the manner 
in which the news of her election to the 
Philosophical Society reached her, the 
princess says, — 

" I was at my country house, and was 
not a little surprised on hearing that a 
messenger from the council of state wished 
to see me. The case and letter were intro- 
duced, the former of which contained a 
large packet from Dr. Franklin, and the 
letter a very complimentary communication 
on the part of the Duke of Sudermania, 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I4I 

These despatches," says the princess, " were 
sent without any examination," and it was 
necessary to explain their nature at once 
to the despotic Catherine. "Accordingly 
I drove to town," adds the princess, " or 
rather straight to court ; and on entering 
the Empress's dressing-room I told the 
valet de chanibre in waiting that if her 
majesty was not then engaged I should be 
happy in having permission to speak to 
her, and to show her some papers which I 
had that morning received. The Empress 
desired I might be shown into her bed- 
chamber, where I found her writing at a 
little table. Having delivered into her 
hands the letter of the Duke of Suder- 
mania, ' These others, madame,' said I, ' are 
from Dr. Franklin and from the secretary 
of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, 
of which I have been admitted a most un- 
worthy member.' " The Empress made no 
comment on this matter ; but after reading 
the letter of the duke, desired the princess 
not to answer his grace's complimentary 
effusion. She had no objection, it appears, 
to a correspondence between the princess 



142 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

and the octogenarian Franklin, on the other 
side of the sea; but with the Duke of 
Sudermania it was quite a different affair. 
The duke was a brother of the King of 
Sweden, there was a coolness between the 
courts of Russia and Sweden, and, to com- 
plicate matters, his grace had admired the 
princess at Aix and Spa, who, with all her 
vast experience of life and long years of 
widowhood, was only a little over forty, 
and speaks herself of her beaux ycux. 

From the time of the election of the 
Princess Daschkof, in 1^89, the society 
has always had a Russian membership, 
generally from among the members of the 
St. Petersburg Academy. In 1864 it was 
presented with a superb copy of the Codex 
Sinaiticus, published in St. Petersburg in 
1862, from the parchmicnt rolls found by 
Tischendorf in the monastery of St. Cath- 
arine on Mount Sinai. 

A day never to be forgotten by the 
members of the Philosophical Society — 
and there are some persons living whose 
memory runs back to that period — was 
that upon which the Marquis de Lafayette 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I43 

was welcomed to its hall, on his return to 
America in 1824. No words can more 
fitly describe the emotions of the hour, 
certainly none can bring back more per- 
fectly the aroma of that olden time adula- 
tion, than the address of welcome pro- 
nounced, on this occasion, by Mr. Charles 
J, IngersoU : 

" America does not forget the romantic forthcoming 
of the most generous, consistent, and heroic of the 
knights of the old world to the rescue of the new. 
She has always dwelt delighted on the constancy of the 
nobleman who could renounce titles and wealth for more 
historical and philanthropic honors ; the commander re- 
nouncing power, who never shed a drop of blood for 
conquest or vainglory. She has often trembled, but 
never blushed, for her oriental champion, when tried by 
the alternate caresses and rage of the most terrific mobs, 
and imposing monarchs. She knows that his hospitable 
mansion was the shrine at which her citizens in France 
consecrated their faith in independence. Invited to 
revisit the scenes of his first eminence, the very idolatry 
of welcome abounds with redeeming characteristics of 
self-government. . . . They raise him before the world 
as its image, and bear him through illuminated cities 
and widely-cultivated regions, all redolent with festivity 
and every device of hospitality and entertainment, 
where, when their independence was declared, there 
was little else than wilderness and war." 



144 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Could tongue or pen say more ? 

An old Philadelphia lady, who, in her 
youth, had the honor of walking to church 
with Lafayette, vividly recalls her keen dis- 
appointment when she first saw him, — 
short and stout, not by any means the 
typical hero of her romantic dreams. His 
son, George Washington Lafayette, was 
with him, and at a dinner given him, when 
called upon to respond to a toast, arose, 
and, struggling with his emotion and his 
feeble command of English, placed his 
hand upon his heart, and said, " I am zo 
happy to be ze son of my fadder !" — words 
which so touched the sympathetic chord 
in the hearts of all present that they felt 
that the entire vocabulary of the language 
could have furnished him with no more 
fitting phrase. 

Among later members of the society 
have been such men as Noah Webster, 
Josiah Quincy, Washington Irving, Elisha 
Kent Kane, the Arctic explorer, the Count 
de Lesseps, Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, George Bancroft, the 
historian, James Russell Lowell, and the 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. I45 

two great naturalists, Louis Agassiz, and 
Joseph Leidy, both of whom, with their vast 
learning, retained through life a childlike 
frankness and simplicity that endeared them 
to all who approached them. Those who 
met Professor Agassiz by the sea, during 
his vacation seasons, and heard from his 
own lips of the wonders of the shore, and 
those who listened to a popular lecture of 
Dr. Leidy, in which he described the life 
and customs of the minute creatures to be 
found in a drop of pond water, will always 
rejoice that it was their privilege to journey 
even a little way into the fairy land of 
science with such masters for their guides. 
Of the pleasure and profit of a more 
thorough penetration into its mysteries 
and enchantments under such preceptors, 
those who were fortunate enough to be 
numbered among the students of Agassiz 
and Leidy speak with enthusiasm. 

The Philosophical Society, grown gray 
and venerable, now celebrates. May, 1893, 
its one hundred and fiftieth birthday. Al- 
though numbering a large corps of native 
and foreign members, working in various 
Q k 13 



146 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

branches of knowledge, and contributing to 
its regularly issued publications valuable 
papers, the present fraternity feel that the 
society's proudest claim to distinction lies 
in the fact that it fostered literature, science, 
and invention in the young nation, and 
thus became the alma mater of many in- 
stitutions that have gone forth from its 
protecting arms to become, in their turn, 
centres of liijht and usefulness. 






" |F the impulse towards learning early 
giv^en by the American Philosophi- 
cal Society has found expression in 
Philadelphia, and other cities, in his- 
torical societies, scientific schools, acade- 
mies of natural science, and kindred insti- 
tutions, its more genial and social side has 
long been represented in the city of its 
birth by the Wistar Parties. 

As this old club has, within a few years, 
been reorganized, it may be interesting to 
turn back to the period of its inception, 
and even further back into the past century, 
when Dr. Caspar Wistar held, at his own 
house, those informal gatherings to which 
the Wistar Parties of to-day owe their 
name. How large a place this club filled in 

147 



148 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

the social life of the period may be gathered 
from the fact that most Philadelphians of 
distinction, if not actual members, were its 
frequent guests, while all strangers of note 
were introduced into the circle of choice 
spirits, — choice in the full sense of the 
word, because chosen for particular gifts 
or attainments, the original Wistar Club 
being composed of members of the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, a close organi- 
zation that has ever striven to keep its eye 
single to the interests of science, literature, 
art, history, and the promotion of all use- 
ful knowledge. Although Silas Deane, 
the Marquis de Chastellux, and John 
Adams grow quite enthusiastic when de- 
scribing the luxurious living prevalent 
among " the nobles of Pennsylvania," the 
latter admits, with what in a New-Eng- 
lander may be considered rare generosity, 
that there was something to be found here 
better than our high living, as he speaks 
of the " high thinking" of some of those 
old Philadelphians, in one of his charming 
letters to his wife which arc only less 
charmin"" than her own. 



'V 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. 1 49 

That John Adams does not mention 
Dr. Wistar's hospitable house, and the 
company met there, is attributable to the 
fact that the seat of government, and with 
it John Adams as its head, removed from 
Philadelphia to Washington about the time 
that these receptions began. To account 
for their origin by saying that Dr. Wistar, 
on his return from Europe, attempted in 
his native city something modelled after 
the Italian coiivcrsadojic or the French 
soiree seems unnecessary. The following 
explanation, given by Mr. Tyson, is much 
more reasonable : 

" Very soon after his marriage [Dr. Wistar's], * if not 
before, several of his friends were in the constant habit 
of meeting at his house on Sunday evenings. At that 
time he was a Professor in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and a gentleman much admired and respected for 
many estimable qualities. He would nece'^sarily have 
numerous visitors, and, being supposed or known to be 
more at leisure on Sundays than on other nights of the 
week, it came to be more usually selected by his guests. 
As his widow described these visits, they were rather 
voluntary than invited." 

* Dr. Wistar married Elizabeth Mifflin, granddaughter 
of John Mifflin, the Councillor. — Provincial Councillors 
of Pennsylvania, by Charles P. Keith. 
13* 



150 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

As the years rolled on, they, however, 
became a regular institution, the same 
friends meeting, week after week, in Dr. 
Wistar's house, at the southwest corner 
of Fourth and Prune Streets. We are 
also informed, Mrs. Caspar Wistar being 
the authority, that in 181 1 the night of 
meeting was changed from Sunday to 
Saturday. It is presumable that Mrs. 
Wistar herself had something to do with 
this change in the evening, as those were 
days when well-regulated housekeepers 
were not inclined to favor Sunday enter- 
tainments. Certain it is that she smiled 
upon the Saturday Wistarians by providing 
for them a more generous fare, adding ice- 
creams and raisins and almonds (shades 
of our ancestors ! was dyspepsia a later 
discovery ?) to the Sunday regale of cakes 
and wine. Even then the name of Syba- 
rite could not be applied to those early 
convives : the terrapin and oyster deca- 
dence was of much later date. A table 
was seldom spread. The number of guests 
varied from ten to fifty, but usually in- 
cluded between fifteen and twenty-five 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. I5I 

persons. The invitations were commenced 
in October or November, and continued 
to March or April. During this period 
Dr. Wistar welcomed to his home, each 
week, his old friends and colleagues, and 
any strangers whom they chose to bring 
with them. 

In 1804 Dr. Wistar issued an invitation 
to his friends to meet Baron von Hum- 
boldt, the great naturalist, and his young 
friend the botanist Bonpland, who stopped 
in Philadelphia on their return from a 
scientific expedition through Mexico and 
the West Indies. Here also was intro- 
duced the latest sensation, in the form of 
Captain Riley, long a prisoner among the 
Arabs ; also the learned and eccentric Dr. 
Mitchill, first Surgeon-General of New 
York, later satirized by Halleck and Drake 
in " The Croakers :" 

" We hail thee ! — mammoth of the State, 
Steam frigate on the waves of physic, 
Equal in practice or debate 

To cure the nation or the phthisic !" 

Dr. Hosack, of the same city, who was 
present at the fatal duel between Hamilton 



V 



152 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

and Burr, was another early guest ; while 
under the formal organization of 1818, and 
in a time nearer our own, England's most 
brilliant novelist recalls an evening spent 
at what he is pleased to call a " Whister 
party." 

It is not strange that Philadelphians 
were glad to take the guests of the city 
to these parties, where was gathered to- 
gether, both in the last century and in this, 
the best that our New World civilization 
could produce, whether of talent and learn- 
ing or of courtly grace and good breeding, 
and here down all the varied years has 
flashed that genial flow of wit without 
which no social gathering is complete. 
Here, in early days, came the learned and 
witty Abbe Correa de Serra, Mr. Samuel 
Breck, of Boston, and Dr. John W. Francis, 
of New York, whose wit and social qualities 
were said to resemble those of the much- 
loved Lamb ; and later came Robert Walsh 
and Joseph Hopkinson, both distinguished 
for their brilliant colloquial abilities, while 
Nicholas Biddle would save for the learned 
brotherhood his freshest bon viot, and Dr. 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. I 53 

Nathaniel Chapman would bring hither his 
most irresistible witticism. 

If the older physicians, whose portraits 
were recently collected at the centenary 
of the College of Physicians, could step 
down from their frames, after the fashion 
of a scene in a well-known drama, we 
should have before us, /// propria persona, 
a number of Dr. Wistar's guests of the 
medical fraternity. Prominent among 
these was Dr. Benjamin Rush, who has 
been called the American Sydenham, but 
who combined so many gifts that, like 
certain plants of various characteristics, it 
is almost impossible to classify him. Per- 
haps in a larger sense than it can be said 
of most men, even of the good physician, 
he belonged to humanity.* 

Another frequent guest was Dr. Adam 
Kuhn, who studied in Edinburgh, and 
brought home treasures of learning as 

* Dr. Rush himself humorously related how his 
patriotism had interfered with his practice, a number 
of persons refusing to be treated by him for yellow 
fever for the very good reason that he had signed the 
Declaration of Independence. 



154 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

his contribution to this " feast of reason." 
Here were also the Shippens, father and 
son, — both Williams, both practising at 
the same time, and both so eminent that 
they have frequently been confused by the 
historian. An honorable line of Shippens, 
in different callings, but notably in law and 
medicine, has come from that Edward 
Shippen of whom Boston was not worthy, 
and who, after being lashed and driven 
through the town at the cart's tail, because, 
forsooth, good Puritans couldn't abide 
good Quakers, came to Philadelphia in 
1693, to be its first mayor and the founder 
of a distinguished family.* Here also 
shone the kindly face of Dr. Samuel Powel 
Griffitts, who seems to have brought with 
him, wherever he went, an atmosphere 
of " peace and good will to men." And 



* Since writing the above, it appears upon the indis- 
jnitable authority of the first charter for the city of Pliila- 
delphia, discovered in 1887 by Messrs. Edward P. Alhn- 
son and Boies Penrose, that the honored name of Edward 
Shippen, which so long headed the list of Philadelphia 
mayors, must be relegated to a second place, Humphrey 
Morray having been the first mayor of Philadelphia. 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. I55 

here, these gatherings being formed of 
men of various calhngs and professions, 
came such lawyers as Wilham Rawle, who 
was ready to discuss theology as well as 
law, — perhaps a little readier to talk of 
the one than of the other. One day he 
is writing his notes on the Constitution of 
the United States, while upon another 
such subjects as Original Sin and the 
Evidences of Christianity engage his ver- 
satile pen. 

Among legal gentlemen who were fre- 
quent guests of Dr. Wistar were Wil- 
liam Tilghman, of Maryland, later Chief 
Justice of Pennsylvania, who in an inter- 
esting biographical sketch has embalmed 
the memory of his host ; George Clymer, 
statesman and patriot, whose name is ap- 
pended to the Declaration ; and Peter Du 
Ponceau, who, although a Frenchman, had 
an ardent admiration for American insti- 
tutions and the primitive simplicity that 
characterized the old Quaker regime in 
Philadelphia. And that the cure of souls 
might not be neglected, we find here John 
Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, an 



156 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

intimate of Wistar, and a correspondent of 
Du Ponceau, who later translated Hecke- 
welder's interesting work on Indian man- 
ners and customs into the French. Here 
also was John Vaughan, the Unitarian phi- 
lanthropist, of whom it has been said that 
" he represented this city as faithfully as its 
own name ' Brotherly Love.' " Did they 
meet and talk together, these two at the 
extreme poles of doctrine, the devout Mo- 
ravian and the Arian whose life was conse- 
crated to the service of his brother man ? 
If they met, and in their discourse fell 
upon such subjects as engage the char- 
acters in " Paradise Lost" and the " Divina 
Commedia," we may be sure that in their 
large mutual love for mankind they found 
abundant sympathy, 

" Nor melted in the acid waters of a creed 
The Christian jjearl of charity." 

A goodly company, among whose mem- 
bers there is no one more worthy to be re- 
membered than the host, generally known 
as Dr. Caspar Wistar, Jr., being descended 
from another Caspar Wistar, who came to 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. 1 5/ 

this country in 1 717. We are informed 
by a German scholar and a genealogist 
that all the Wisters, whether tcr or tar, 
come from one common stock in Germany, 
where the name is written Wiister, and 
that Caspar, who came to Philadelphia in 
17 17, son of Hans Caspar and Anna 
Katerina Wiister or Wister, in having a 
deed of conveyance prepared was put 
down Wistar by the clerk. This mistake 
he did not take the trouble to correct, and 
from this first Caspar has come a line of 
tars, of which Dr. Caspar Wistar, Jr., was 
the most distinguished. A second son of 
old Hans Caspar Wister, of Hilsbach, Ger- 
many, coming over later, had his papers 
made out properly, according to the Ger- 
man orthography of the name, and thus 
established the Philadelphia line of ters. 
We venture to give this rather lengthy 
explanation in view of the fact that the 
spelling of Wister has been a fertile sub- 
ject for discussion in the Quaker City for 
some years, and because it is a most 
reasonable one, as will be admitted by all 
who have studied the records of past 
14 



158 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

generations. In old letters and papers of 
the last century it is not unusual to find a 
surname variously spelled in the same 
letter, or even on the same page. This 
is notably the case in the voluminous 
" Penn and Logan Correspondence," where 
Jenings and Jennings, Ashton and Asshe- 
ton, Blaithwaite and IMathwayt, used inter- 
changeably, hopelessly confuse the reader. 

A student of the schools of Edinburgh, 
Professor in the College of Philadelphia, 
and later in the University, Dr. Wistar has 
the honor of being the author of the first 
American treatise on anatomy. Eminent 
as a physician, teacher, and man of science, 
this large-brained and busy man found life 
incomplete without the cultivation of its 
social side. 

It is to be regretted that Mr. Vaughan, 
Mr. Du Ponceau, or the learned Dr. Ben- 
jamin Rush, who at times used a pen with 
a humorous nib, or some of the other 
habitues of these unique gatherings, have 
not left us pleasant and gossiping remi- 
niscences of the Wistar Club, which would 
serve to render us as familiar with these old 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. I 59 

figures as contemporaneous writers have 
made us with the frequenters of the Kit- 
Cat Club, where the wits of Queen Anne's 
time gathered, or that later circle at the 
Turk's Head, dominated by the great burly 
figure of the dictionary-maker, Garrick, 
Reynolds, and all the rest are grouped 
about him ; and Boswell is ever at hand, 
taking notes. Did humble Boswell realize 
that he was painting pictures for the future, 
as well as, even better than, the elegant 
Sir Joshua, who sat near him ? Goldsmith 
was at it too, giving us life as it was, not 
some fanciful picture of it ; and to them 
we owe it that these men live before us 
now. The following is the nearest ap- 
proach that we can find to such a picture, 
and this, from the pen of the late Chief 
Justice Tilghman, gives us only one figure, 
when we would like to be presented to the 
whole company. 

After dwelling upon the modest dignity 
and bland courtesy of Dr. Wistar's bear- 
ing as President of the Philosophical So- 
ciety, and the ardor with which he incited 
its members to diligence in collecting. 



l6o THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

before it should be too late, the perishing 
materials of American history, ]\Ir. Tilgh- 
man says, — 

" The meetings of this committee he [Dr. Wistar] 
regularly attended. It was their custom, after the btisi- 
ness of the evening was concluded, to enter upon an 
unconstrained conversation on literary subjects. Then, 
without intending it, our lamented friend would insen- 
sibly take the lead ; and so interesting were his anec- 
dotes, and so just his remarks, that, drawing close to the 
dying embers, we often forgot the lapse of time, until 
warned by the unwelcome clock that we had entered on 
another day." 

Here is another pen-sketch from a writer 
signing himself " Antiquary," which has a 
touch of life in it, and shows the good doc- 
tor's ready tact in setting diganchc stranger 
at his ease. Mr. John Vaughan introduced 
into the learned circle what the narrator 
is pleased to call " a living, live Yankee, a 
specimen of humanity more rare," he says, 
" forty or fifty years ago than now." It 
would appear that this compatriot was 
received into the company with emotions 
similar to those awakened, later, by the 
advent of the " American Cousin" in Eng- 
land. 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. l6l 

" He was," says the writer, " a man remarkable for 
his mechanical turn of mind, but entirely unused to 
society. No workshop could turn out a more uncouth 
individual. I was standing near the door when John 
Vaughan brought him in. Between the blaze of light, 
the hum of conversation, and the number of well-dressed 
men, he was completely overcome, and sank into the 
first chair he could reach. Mr. Vaughan could not 
coax him out of it, and I expected every minute the 
door opened that he would make a bolt for the street. 
Presently Dr. Wistar, who had the happy knack of 
suiting his conversation to all ages and classes, was 
introduced to the shy Yankee. Soon the ice was broken, 
and I saw the shy mechanic conversing freely with 
scientific men, explaining to them his views upon mechan- 
ism, etc." 

When, in 1 8 1 8, the good old doctor went 
out to join " the innumerable company," 
the little circle here, which he had drawn 
together, resolved to commemorate the 
pleasant meetings at his house, and to 
keep fresh his memory, by forming an 
organization called the Wistar Parties. 
This is, in brief, the raison d'etre of the 
association, as given by a subsequent mem- 
ber, Mr. Job R. Tyson, in his interesting 
paper entitled " Sketch of the Wistar 
Party," read before that honorable society 
September 26, 1845. He says, — 
/ 14* 



1 62 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

" I have ascertained that the following gentlemen, in 
the autumn of the year iSi8, formed themselves into an 
association and agreed to give three parties every year, 
during the season : William Tilghman, Robert IM. Pat- 
terson, Peter S. Du Ponceau, John Vaughan, Reuben 
Haines, Robert Walsh, Jr., Zacheus Collins, and Thomas 
C. James." 

There were only eight to begin with ; in 
1821 the number had increased to sixteen, 
and in 1828 to twenty-four. 

Mr. Tyson tells us that two essential laws 
of the existence of the organization were, 
^^ first, that no one is eligible to member- 
ship who is not a member of the American 
Philosophical Society ; and, second, that 
unanimity is necessary to a choice." Nu- 
merous regulations were added, " which," 
he says, " with some modifications, have 
since been observed." 

The number of Philadelphians who 
could be invited to one party was twenty, 
and these it appears were picked citizens, 
selected rather for their attainments and 
attributes than for their " long descent." 
With regard to the number of strangers 
invited, no limit was set. 

The members were pledged to attend 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. 1 63 

themselves, and procure the attendance of 
strangers, punctually at the hour of eight 
o'clock ; and " the sumptuary code en- 
joined, as consentaneous with the scheme 
and objects in view, that the entertainments 
should be marked by unexpensive, if not 
frugal, simplicity." No tea, coffee, cakes, 
or wine were to be served before supper. 
It was recommended that the collation 
consist of one course, and be so prepared as 
to dispense with the use of knives at table. 
No ice-creams were allowed. This in 1828. 

In 1835 Mr. Job R. Tyson bought Dr. 
Caspar Wistar's old house, at Fourth and 
Prune Streets, when once more it opened 
its doors to the learned and jovial brother- 
hood. 

In 1840 the number of citizens who 
could be invited was raised to forty, while 
in the years succeeding the organization 
of the club many guests from over the 
sea, and from the different States of the 
Union, had been welcomed to the Wistar 
Parties. One of the latter writes, — 

" During my stay in Philadelphia I was present at 
several of these Wistar meetings, and always returned 



164 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

from them with increased conviction of their beneficial 
tendency. 

" These meetings are held by rotation at the houses 
of the different members. The conversation is generally 
literary or scientific, and, as the parly is usually very 
large, it can be varied at pleasure. Philosophers eat 
like other men, and the precaution of an excellent 
supper is by no means found to be superfluous. It acts, 
too, as a gentle emollient on the acrimony of debate. 
No man can say a harsh thing with his mouth full of 
turkey, and disputants forget their differences in unity 
of enjoyment." 

Better known abroad in the early part 
of the century than any other American 
city, all travellers of consequence came to 
Philadelphia. Among these we find such 
men as General Moreau, counted after 
Bonaparte the greatest general in the 
French Republic : the younger Murat, 
who married Miss Fraser, of South Caro- 
lina; the Marquis de Grouchy, whose name 
will be forever associated with the defeat of 
Waterloo ; the poet Moore, whose singing 
drew tears from the beautiful eyes of Mrs. 
Joseph Hopkinson ; the Prince de Canino, 
son-in-law of Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king 
of Spain, who, himself residing at Borden- 
town until 1830, was doubtless a guest of 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. 1 65 

the Wistar Association, although, after the 
fashion of princes, it was his pleasure to 
entertain rather than to be entertained. 
These and many more, including President 
Madison, and the witty and able Virginia 
gentleman William Short, who, as secre- 
tary of legation under Thomas Jefferson, 
charge-d'affaires to the French Republic, 
and minister to Spain and the Netherlands, 
had seen much of foreign official and 
social life. An acquaintance of Talley- 
rand, himself a diplomatist, life abroad 
offered Mr. Short many attractions, which 
a friend and contemporary assures us were 
more than balanced by the terrors of the 
sea, which menaced him in the form of 
sea-sickness. This gentleman, a surviving 
member of the Wistar Association of, 1837, 
recalls no social intercourse in Old- World 
cities more delightful than that of this 
informal club. 

While on a visit to Philadelphia in 1825, 
the Duke of Saxe-Weimar makes the 
following entry in his journal : 

" At Mr. Walsh's I found a numerous assembly, 
mostly of scientific and literary gentlemen. This as- 



1 66 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

sembly is called ' Wistar Party.' . . . The conversation 
generally relates to literary and scientific topics. I un- 
expectedly met Mr. E. Livingston in this assembly. I 
was also introduced tothe mayor of the city, Mr. [Joseph] 
Watson, as well as to most of the gentlemen present, 
whose interesting conversation afforded me much enter- 
tainment." 

This German nobleman, who was well 
" wined and dined" in old Philadelphia, 
seems to have possessed a happy faculty 
of replying aptly to the pretty compliments 
paid him and his country by Judge Peters, 
Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll, and other social 
magnates of the period. To the toast 
" Weimar, the native country of letters," he 
replied, with ready wit, " Pennsylvania, the 
asylum of unfortunate Germans." Can we 
not hear the laughter and applause that 
greeted that toast ? They were not al- 
lowed to subside, either, as the venerable 
Judge Peters followed the toast with a 
song which he had composed the previous 
evening, and which he sang with great 
vivacity and spirit. Are there any such 
gatherings now, and do our octogenarians 
sing songs of their own composing with 
vivacity ? 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. 1 6/ 

The Duke of Saxe- Weimar describes 
another Wistar Party, this at the house of 
Colonel Clement C. Biddle, at which John 
Quincy Adams, then President of the 
United States, was a guest. Of him he 
says, — 

" The President is about sixty years old, of rather / 
short stature, with a bald head, and of a very plain and 
worthy appearance. He speaks little, but what he does 
speak is to the purpose. I must confess that I seldom 
in my life felt so true and sincere a reverence as at the 
moment when this honorable gentleman, whom eleven 
millions of people have thought worthy to elect as their 
chief magistrate, shook hands with me." 

In the same year Chief Justice Tilghman 
records a Wistar Party held at his house, 
at which were present such citizens as 
Roberts Vaux, Mathew Carey, the Irish 
protectionist, his son Henry C. Carey, 
political economist and writer, Joseph Hop- 
kinson, the elder Peale, who had studied 
at the Royal Academy in London and 
came home to paint portraits of Washing- 
ton and his generals, Dr. Frederick Beas- 
ley, and many more, with a sprinkling of 
foreigners, — Mr. Pedersen, Minister from 



y 




1 68 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Denmark to the United States, the Prince 
de Canino, who was an enthusiastic orni- 
thologist, Colonel Beckwith, who had left 
a leg upon the field of Waterloo, and 
several French chevaliers. The whole 
company, numbering about one hundred, 
was regaled with chicken salad, oysters, 
ices, wine, punch, and the like, at an ex- 
pense of twenty four dollars and eighty- 
nine cents. This moderate sum, the ac- 
curate transcriber tells us, included the 
whiskey for the punch, the spermaceti 
candles, oil for the lamps, and extra fire in 
one room. 

Later in the history of the Wistar Club, 
after the good founders had gone, and left it 
to its own devices, serious innovations were 
made in the old sumptuary code, whereupon 
severe strictures were instituted against 
the dainty fare set before the wise men, in 
the local journals and elsewhere. One of 
these attacks upon the Wistarians appeared 
in the then recently established Daily 
Courier, and is interesting not only because 
the slashing editorial of the young writer 
ended the brief career of his paper, but 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. 1 69 

because its demise is intimately connected 
with the rise of two prominent journals 
of to-day. It happened that many of the 
subscribers to 'CiXQ Daily Courier ^q.xq mem- 
bers or guests of the Wistar Parties. These 
persons instantly withdrew their patronage. 
The Courier was shaken to its foundations, 
and the unfortunate young Scotchman, 
James Gordon Bennett, whose pen had 
proved too sharp for Philadelphia, sold his 
journal to Mr. Jesper Harding, upon which 
the Daily Cotirier was merged in the 
Pennsylvania Inquirer, and Mr. Bennett, 
having transplanted his talents to the more 
congenial soil of New York, later em- 
ployed them in founding the Nezv York 
Herald^ 

Written invitations to the Wistar Parties 
seem to have been used up to 1835, when 
Mr. Vaughan first speaks of a printed in- 
vitation. This bore the quaint queued 
head of Dr. Wistar, and is in all respects 
similar to that issued by the Wistar As- 
sociation redivivus of 1886. 

* Casper Souder's History of Chestnut Street. 
H 15 



I/O THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

In 1838 and 1839 printed lists appeared, 
naming the hosts of the season, and giving 
the dates of the several entertainments. 
To these were appended sumptuary regu- 
lations, which were of course born to die. 
Just when the terrapin, game, croquette, 
and like dainties replaced the original de- 
canters, flanked with ice, cakes, and one 
substantial course, Mr. Tyson does not 
record. When the terrapin came, however, 
it came to stay, until the hot discussions 
incident to the disturbances of the late 
civil war routed it and the guests alike. 

Thackeray carried away from Phila- 
delphia such pleasant recollections of the 
Wistar Parties, and the mirth and good 
cheer there enjoyed, that he thus refers to 
them in a letter written to Mr. William 
B. Reed from Washington in 1853. He 
has just heard of the death of his friend 
Mr. William Peter, British Consul to Phila- 
delphia. 

" Saturday I was to have dined with him, and Mrs. 
Peter wrote saying he was ill with influenza : he was in 
bed with his last illness, and there were to be no more 
Whister parties for him. Will Whister himself, hospi- 



1/ 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. I/I 

table pig-tailed shade, welcome him to Hades? And 
will they sit down — no, stand up^to a ghostly supper, 
devouring the i(p6c/j.ov^ ipv;(ag of oysters and all sorts of 
birds ?" 

Something else than the mighty oysters 
impressed the genial novelist, and that was 
the face and figure of John Irwin, a well- 
known head-waiter, who so resembled the 
terrapin over which he presided that Thack- 
eray has, in a few rapid pencil-strokes, 
put him down on paper as a fine specimen 
of a diamond-back. Those who still re- 
member Irwin's great paunch and shining 
face will recognize his portrait in Mr. 
Thackeray's " Orphan of Pimlico." Thus, 
this latter-day Bogle, although there arose 
in his time no poet, like Nicholas Biddle, 
to embalm his virtues in humorous verse, 
has, like the " colorless colored man," been 
immortalized by the hand of genius. 

The pleasing side of Philadelphia social 
life must have left its impress upon the 
receptive mind of Thackeray, as he writes 
from Switzerland in July of the same year, — 

" Since my return from the West, it was flying from 
London to Paris, and vice versa, dinners right and left, 



172 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

^ parties every night. If I had been in Philadelphia I 
could scarcely have been more feasted. Oh, you un- 
happy Reed ! I see you (after that little supper with 
McMichael) on Sunday at your own table, when we 
had that good Sherry-Madeira, turning aside from the 
wine-cup with your jmle face ! That cup has gone down 
this well so often (meaning my own private cavity) that 
I wonder the cup isn't broken, and the well as well as 
it is. . . . I always remember you and yours, and honest 
Mac, and Wharton, and Lewis, and kind fellows who 
have been kind to me and I hope will be kind to me 
again." 

The "Mac" is evidently Mr. Morton 
McMichael, to whose whiskey punch Mr. 
Thackeray alludes with tenderness in an- 
other letter, and who is described by all 
who knew him as the most genial of men, 
a very " king of good fellows." So great 
were his social talents that, like Shen- 
stone's Frenchwoman who could " draw 
wit out of a stone," he possessed the 
power to redeem from stagnation the 
dullest of dinners by his happy faculty of 
giving his best and leading others to do 
the same. 

The " Lewis" alluded to by Mr. Thack- 
eray is Mr. William D. Lewis, more recently 
dead ; another delightful dinner-talker. 



I/' 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. 1 73 

Possessed of rare bonliomie, and furnished 
with a fund of anecdotes of travel, — for 
he had Hved some years in Russia, — he 
brought mirth and cheer into the circles to 
which he was welcomed, and was even 
known, on occasions, to sing some famil- 
iar household verses, as " Home, Sweet 
Home," in the Russian language, to the 
great amusement, if not to the edification, 
of his hearers. 

In 1842, Mr. Tyson records only two of 
the original members of 1 8 1 8 still surviving. 
Dr. R. M. Patterson and Robert Walsh. 
The kindly face of Mr. Vaughan (Johnny 
Vaughan, as his intimates called him), first 
Dean of the Wistar Association, had only 
lately disappeared from the circle. Al- 
though death had sadly thinned the ranks 
of original membership, a number of 
honored names filled the blanks : among 
these, Horace Binney, William M. Mere- 
dith, John Sergeant, Joshua Francis Fisher, 
Judge Kane, Langdon Cheves, from South 
Carolina, Thomas Isaac Wharton, and, 
there always being a large proportion of 
medical men, such distinguished sons of 
IS* 



174 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

the healing art as Dr. Robert Hare, Dr. 
Thomas C. James, Dr. John K. Mitchell, 
Dr. Isaac Hays, physician and writer, Dr. 
Franklin Bache and his friend Dr. George 
B. Wood closely associated with him in 
medical literature, Dr. Charles D. Meigs, 
and Moncure Robinson, Esq., who, among 
the many who have come and gone, still 
[1887] recalls delightful evenings spent at 
the Wistar Parties. Dr. Isaac Lea was in 
1843 Dean of the association, which office 
he held until the stirring events of '60 and 
'61 scattered its members, not again to 
unite until 1886, within a few months of 
his death, when he was succeeded in this 
office by his son, Mr. Henry C. Lea.* 

* The Saturday Night Parties, held during the war and 
for some years after, have been spoken of as direct suc- 
cessors of the Wistar Association. These, however, were 
not composed of members of the Philosophical Society, 
and the discussions at the meetings naturally partook of 
the heat and excitement of the hour, rather than of the 
calmer literary and scientific debate for which the Wistar 
Parties were designed. The only lineal descendants of 
the Wistar Association of 181 8 are the parties recently 
organized, which bear the name of the great physician 
and scientist in whose honor they were founded. 



THE WISTAR PARTIES. 1 7$ 

Writing- during this hiatus of many 
years, Dr. George B. Wood says, — 

" I have always regarded the Wistar Club not merely 
as an ornamental feature of Philadelphia society, but as 
a very useful institution ; bringing as it did persons 
together of various pursuits, who would not otherwise 
perhaps have met, thus removing prejudices and concili- 
ating friendly feeling ; and, by a regulation regarding 
strangers which gave each member the right to intro- 
duce one or more to the meetings, facilitating their inter- 
course with citizens, and contributing to the reputation 
of our city for hospitality." 

It may be that these words hold something 
of a prophecy for the future, as well as a 
7-esiiine of the past ; and now that the old- 
time invitation, bearing the " hospitable 
pig-tailed" head of the founder, has once 
more begun to circulate, an important in- 
fluence may be exercised by it, in drawing 
together the best and ablest of the various 
professions and callings of this city, and in 
affording, as of old, a pleasant and informal 
means of entertaining stranger guests. 
Such a club as this forecasts a meeting- 
ground where British and Continental sci- 
entists and literati, professional men and 
men of affairs, may clasp hands with 



1/6 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

American workers on the same lines ; 
where the large philanthropy of England 
may meet an even larger New-World phi- 
lanthropy ; where, under some hospitable 
roof, questions in social and political 
science, or the latest discovery in chem- 
istry or physics, may be discussed over 
croquettes and oysters, and with a dash 
of hock or sherry (no sparkling wines 
are allowed) the seas that wash widely- 
separated shores shall be bridged in an 
instant, and, meeting on some congenial 
ground of knowledge, of thought, or of 
interest, Old and New World denizens 
shall feel the delightful thrill of a common 
brotherhood. 





A BUNDLE 
OF OLD LOVE LETTERS 




&TRANGE it is that the maiden 
meditations of more than two cen- 
turies ago should have recently 
been brought to light in the love- 
letters of Dorothy Osborne, so 
full of womanly tenderness, so humorous, 
so grave and gay by turns, and so valuable 
for the spirited pictures they give of the 
life and personages of the day. 

Among stacks of dry-as-dust manu- 
scripts, awaiting the discriminating inspec- 
tion of the antiquarian, are doubtless other 
letters of sentiment worthy of the world's 
reading, even if there are few equal in 
grace and style to those of the lovely 
mistress of Chicksands. A few such un- 
m 177 



178 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

known or forgotten love-letters have come 
under the observation of the writer, — 
among these some yellowed pages traced 
by the hand of William Penn and ad- 
dressed to Hannah Callowhill, whose name 
is now handed down to Philadelphians by 
the street which bears her family name, 
but who was known to her contemporaries 
as a woman of strong character and noble 
qualities, well fitted to be a helpmeet to 
the good Proprietary. These letters form 
pleasant reading for a leisure hour, not 
only on account of their quaint simplicity, 
but also because of the insight they give 
into the delicate and refined nature of the 
man who wrote them.* 

We are wont to think of the founder of 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylv^ania as a 
man deeply immersed in religious ques- 
tions, in legal business, land surveys and 
titles, — indeed, in all that affected the wel- 
fare of the little colony that he established 
on the banks of the Delaware. To picture 
him as an ardent lover requires some im- 

* From MS. letters in possession of the Historical 
Society of Pennsylvania. 



A BUNDLE OF OLD LOVE LETTERS. 1 79 

agination, especially at a period when the 
early romance of his life was buried in 
the grave of his beloved Gulielma, and 
he figures on the pages of history as a 
widower, past middle age, with three chil- 
dren. Yet among his letters to his be- 
trothed are some that glow with all the 
warmth and ardor of youthful affection, 
while, as befits a man of his years and 
position, they contain wise reflections on 
life, and passages marked by the prudence, 
the forethought, and the practical grasp 
that come with riper age ; and always they 
are deeply and sincerely religious. 

This Quaker lover does not write a 
sonnet to the eyebrows of his mistress, 
nor does he say, like a modern widower 
whose billet donx has come under our 
notice, that he has " lost his married part- 
ner and would be glad to renew his loss." 
He tells her, in grave and simple language, 
that it is for the qualities of her heart and 
mind that he loves her and desires to 
win her, as in the following written from 
Worminghurst, Penn's English home, in 
1695: 



I So THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

" And now let me tell thee, my Dearest, that tho' there 
are many qualitys, for which I admire thee, as well as 
love thee, yet yt of Compassionating the unhappy is 
none of the least. And whatsoever putty s has love, for 
it springs out of the same soft ground ; and can never 
fail, as often as there is occasion to try it. That my 
Dearest H. has been a Mourner, a Sympathizer, an in- 
habitant of Dust, and so wean'd from the common tastes 
of pleasure, yt gratefy other Pallats, does so much 
exalt her character with me, yt if this were all she 
brought, she must be a treasure to yt happy man yt 
has a Title to her. And since, by an unusual goodness, 
she has made it my Lot, it shall be as much my pleasure 
as she has made it my duty to make her constantly sen- 
sible how much I am so of my obligation to her." 

One of the mo.st tender of these missives 
includes some family details about Billy's * 
health, who " is lively yet tender" and has 
just had his hair cut, and winds up with 
the following description of a most unro- 
mantic hamper which was intended as an 
offering to the beloved one : 

" I presume by the next wagon, there comes an 
Hamper directed to thy father, the Contents for thee. 

* William Penn, Jr., who grew up a gay young blade 
and distinguished himself by beating the watch and 
otherwise scandalizing the law-abiding citizens of old 
Philadelphia. 



/ 



A BUNDLE OF OLD LOVE LETTERS. l8l 

Viz 3 Gallons of light french Brandy, one of wh' pray 
present thy Mother. I ordered 2 lbs of Chocolate to 
keep them company. My Daughter prays thee to accept 
of 3 small pots of venson, yt she says will keep well 
& are of her own manufacture, as were all the last. 
She is concerned her pig brawn was not ready wc'h she 
fancys would not have been a disagreeable way of eating 
a pig, but another season will do. These are little things 
and yet would express tho' meanly Love that is Great." 

Was Letitia Penn's brawn the same sort 
as that over which dear old Lamb waxed 
so eloquent in a letter to his friend Man- 
ning ? It had been sent to him by the 
cook of Trinity Hall and Caius College, 
and he says of it, — 

" 'Tis of all my hobbies the supreme in the eating 
way. He might have sent sops from the pan, skimmings, 
crumpets, chips, hog's lard, the tender brown judiciously 
scalped from a fillet of veal (dexterously replaced by a 
salamander), the tops of asparagus, fugitive livers, run- 
away gizzards of fowls, the eyes of martyred pigs, the 
red spawn of lobsters, leverets' ears, and such pretty 
filchings common to cooks ; but these had been ordinary 
presents, the every-day courtesies of dish-washers to 
their sweethearts. Brawn was a noble thought." 

At another time William Penn is con- 
cerned about the health of his betrothed, 
and concludes his missive with an earnest 
recommendation to her to take some pills, 
i6 



1/ 



1 82 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

that he sends her, at certain hours of the 
day, and a specified medicinal water, to be 
imbibed " three days before the full and 
changes of the moon." 

It appears to have been a not unusual 
practice among lovers of this period to 
prescribe for their sweethearts, as we find 
Dorothy Osborne writing about some in- 
fusion of steel in which she drinks Sir 
William Temple's health every morning. 
She vows that it makes her horribly ill, 
says that it is a " drench that would poison 
a horse," and declines to continue its use 
unless her lover insists upon her doing so. 
In another of her charming letters she 
gives Sir William many directions about 
the care of his precious health, and even 
does a little quacking on his behalf, send- 
ing him a new medicine for his cold, of 
which she says, — 

" 'Tis like the rest of my medicines : if it do no good 
'twill do no harm and 'twill be no great trouble to take 
a little on't now and then ; for the taste on"t as it is not 
excellent, so 'tis not very ill." 

It is well that some of these old letters 
of sentiment and domestic life are left us, 



A BUNDLE OF OLD LOVE LET-TERS. 1 83 

for did we not occasionally catch glimpses 
of the great men of the past penning 
tender messages to beloved objects (some- 
times, indeed, spelling them very ill), 
writing about their children and sending 
them trinkets and gewgaws, they would 
become to us shadowy personages, very 
spectres, and hauntings of a dream. 

To those who are only acquainted with 
James Logan, William Penn's young sec- 
retary, through his official correspondence 
and endless business letters, he must appear 
a very didactic and uninteresting person- 
age; yet reading between the lines, or 
scanning a stray letter addressed to some 
friend or relative, we catch a sight of the 
real man, of like passions with ourselves. 
Mrs. Hannah Penn, who survived her 
lover's generous hampers and curious 
medical prescriptions and became a happy 
wife and the mother of a brood of sturdy 
young Penns, was well qualified to be a 
lover's co)ifidantc, and to her James Logan 
was pleased to unburden his numerous 
and, it must be admitted, unsuccessful 
love-affairs. A disappointed lover may 



184 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

not be the most attractive object in every- 
day life, but for some indefinable reason it 
adds to the historic interest of a man, 
especially to the feminine reader, to know 
that he loved and wooed in vain and be- 
wailed his fate in prose or verse. Other- 
wise, why should generations of school- 
girls weep over the sorrows of Werther ? 
The young secretary was enamoured of 
Letitia Penn, her of the pig's brawn, and 
Rebecca Moore, and several others, if we 
are to judge from his letters. Letitia mar- 
ried William Aubrey, for whom James 
Logan's admiration was ever after of the 
scantest. His allusion to his rival's ra- 
pacity in money-matters, saying that he 
was "a tiger for returns," by which he 
referred to quit-rents and the like, may 
not have been high-minded, but was it not 
natural ? and also that he should have 
found few words in which to praise Gov- 
ernor Evans, whom the fair Rebecca Moore 
made supremely happy ? It was not, 
however, written in the book of fate that 
this excellent Quaker youth should for- 
ever woo in vain, and from some family 



A BUNDLE OF OLD LOVE LETTERS. 1 85 

treasure trove there comes a charming 
letter that succeeded in bringing to his 
side the lady of his love, with whom he 
lived as long and as happily as the princes 
and princesses of fairy lore. After dwell- 
ing at length upon the " excellent virtues" 
and qualifications of this adorable Quaker 
maiden, and upon his ardent desire to 
claim them and her for his own, the writer 
says, with noble self-abnegation, — 

" Yet, my Dearest, I cannot press it further, than thou 
with freedom canst condescend to it, and enjoy Peace 
and Satisfaction in thy own mind, for without this, I 
cannot so much as desire to obtain thee. I therefore 
here resign thee to that Gracious God, thy tender and 
merciful father, to whom thy innocent life and virtuous 
inclinations have certainly rendered thee very dear that 
He may dispose of thee according to His divine Pleasure, 
and as it may best suit thy happiness — humbly imploring 
at the same time, and beseeching His divine Goodness, 
that I may be made worthy to receive thee as a holy 
gift from his hands : and then thou wilt truly prove a 
Elessing, and we shall forever be happy in each other." * 

This letter of the young secretary is in 
striking contrast to the overloaded verbiage 
so prevalent in that day. which is exhibited 

* From MS. letter, written to Miss Sarah Read, of 
Philadelphia, in possession of Miss F. A. Logan. 
lb* 



1 86 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

in another Colonial letter of a few years' 
earlier date, and which reads as if modelled 
on the style of Sir Charles Grandison. 
The writer of this last effusion, who calls 
himself the Rev. Elias Keach, apologizes 
elaborately for " rushing his rude and un- 
polished lines into the Heroik and most 
Excelent Presence" of his sweetheart, 
Mistress Mary Helm. After defining his 
financial status, which is at a rather low 
ebb, and giving forth as his opinion that 
" Pure Righteousness and Zeal exceeds 
a portion with a wife, so also in a Hus- 
band," Mr. Keach launches his bark upon 
a troubled sea of rhetorical affection, in 
which he pleads the advantages of his 
person, mind, and estate, of whose claims 
he never loses sight, even when involved 
in the most high-flown metaphorical de- 
scriptions of the charms of his mistress. 
The style of Mr. Keach, however, is not 
to be described. Like Charles Lamb's 
favorite dish, it must be tasted to be en- 
joyed. From the carefully pen-printed 
pages before us, we transcribe the following 
passages : 



A BUNDLE OF OLD LOVE LETTERS. 1 8/ 

" Lady let me crave the mantle of your Virtue the 
which Noble and generous favor will hide my naked and 
deformed fault altho : it seems to be a renewed coldness 
to require such an incomparable favour from your tender 
heart, from whom I have deserved so little Kindness. 
Mrs. Mary : Solomon says Childhood and Youth are 
vanity ; and if so you cannot expect that in my youth 
which the gray hairs of our Age (or at least of our wooden 
world) cannot afford ; it is a common saying and a true, 
love is stronger than death, & it is as true a proverb where 
Love cannot go it will creep — you know Dear Lady, that 
the higher the sun riseth by degrees from the East the more 
influence hath the power and heat of its beams upon the 
Earth, so ever since I saw the sun-rise of your comely and 
gracious presence the sunbeams of your countenance and 
your discreet and virtuous behaviour, hath by degrees 
wroat such a virtuous heat and such Ammorouse Effects 
in my disconsolate heart that that which I cannot at 
present disclose in words in your gracious presence I am 
forct (altho far distant from you) to discover in ink and 
paper; trusting in god that this may be a Key to open 
the door of your virtuous and tender heart against the 
time I do appear in person ; Dear Mistress : let me most 
submissively crave this favour of you amoiig your gener- 
rosities that you would not in the least Imagine that I 
have any Bye Ends or reserves in writing these few lines 
to you : But that I am Virtuously truty and sincerely, 
upon the word of a Christian ; and the main scope and 
intent of this letter is only and alone to discover unto 
you, these Amorous impressions of a virtuous Love which 
hath taken root or is All ready ingrafted in my heart ; 
who have lifted myself under the Banner of your Love ; 



1 88 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

provided I can by any means gain the honor to induce 
you- to Acknowledge and account me your most obligeing 
Servant : I must needs say this is not a common practice 
of mine to write Letters of this nature but Love hath 
made that proper which is not common ; Mrs. Mary if 
I had foreseen when I saw you what I have since ex- 
perienced I would have foreshown a more Ample and 
courteous behavior than 1 then did ; Through my Stu- 
pidity and dullness the reason then I could not tell : 
But the effects I now know and shall be careful and 
industrious to improve, not to your disadvantage, and I 
am persuaded to my exceeding comfort and contentment ; 
as fur my person you have in a measure seen it, and as 
for my practice you do in a measure Know it as for my 
parts the Effects of my Conversations will show it. I 
know it is folly to speak in my own Praise, seeing I have 
learnt this Leason Long ago wise is that man that speaks 
few words in his own praise. . . . 

" As for my parents I am obliged By the Law of god ; 
to Honour them, & thus I say in short (first) they are 
of no mean Family ; (secondly) they are of no mean 
Learning, & (thirdly) they are of no mean account and 
note in the World : tho they are not of ye world But the 
truth & certainty of this I Leave to be proved ; By 
Severall of no mean note in this Province and the next." 

Mr. Keach evidently refers to the Prov- 
inces of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 
After several lines that it is impossible to 
decipher, we extract the following hope : 

" That the Silver Streams of my Dearest Affections 
and faithfull Love will be willingly received into the 



A BUNDLE OF OLD LOVE LETTERS. 1 89 

Mill Pond of your tender Virgin Heart ; by your hailing 
up the flood gate of your virtuous Love and Affections ; 
which will completely turn the Wheeles of your Gracious 
will and Understanding to receive the golden graines or 
Effects of my Steadfast Love and unerring Affection 
which will be in Loyall respective and Obliging Service 
so Long as Life Shall Last and such a thrice Happy 
Conjunction ; may induce Many to bring bags of Golden 
graines of Rejoycing to our Mill and River of joy and 
contentment and we ourselves will sing ye Epithalmy ; 
this is the Earnest (yet Languishing) Desire of his Soul 
who hath sent his heart with his Letter :"* 

The foregoing epistle is connected with 
a curious chapter in the rehgious life of 
the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania. f The 
writer, a son of the celebrated controver- 
sialist and Baptist divine of London, Ben- 
jamin Keach, made himself notorious in 
the early days of the Colony by passing 
himself off as a minister of the Baptist 
Church. " A very wild spark," one his- 
torian calls him, while even in Baptist 
annals Elias Keach is spoken of as " an 
ungodly young man, who, to make him- 

* Original owned by Miss Anna Peale, a grand- 
daughter of Charles Willson Peale. 

f New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, which now form the 
State of Delaware. 



1 90 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

self appear to be a clergyman, wore black 
clothing and bands." He carried his im- 
posture SO far as to undertake to conduct a 
service, in the midst of which he broke 
down, and when the congregation gathered 
about him, thinking that he was attacked 
by some sudden indisposition, Mr. Keach 
confessed, " with tears and much trem- 
bling," that he was no minister, nor a 
Christian. Whether this shady episode, 
which occurred in i6S6, the same year 
that the love-letter was written to Miss 
Helm, prevented the mistress of his 
"Amorous and Virtuous Affections" from 
favoring his suit, contemporaneous his- 
tory does not reveal. It does, however, 
establish the fact that Miss More, daughter 
of Chief Justice Nicholas More, of Penn- 
sylvania, and not Miss Helm, became the 
wife of the polite letter-writer. It would 
be interesting to know with what sort of a 
declaratory effusion this second love was 
favored. On this point history is again 
silent. It states, however, what it is only 
just to repeat with regard to the subsequent 
career of Elias Keach, — namely, that he 



A BUxNDLE OF OLD LOVE LETTERS. IQl 

repented of his sins before he created 
further scandal in clerical circles. Having 
confessed, and having received absolution 
and ordination from one Elder Dugan, of 
Rhode Island, Mr. Keach began his life- 
work in earnest, which evidently bore good 
fruit, as he now enjoys the reputation of 
having established the first Baptist church 
in Philadelphia County, that of Pennepack, 
from which sprang a large sisterhood of 
Baptist churches in Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey. 

Among later Colonial love-letters are 
those of Abigail Smith, afterwards Mrs, 
John Adams, which are marked by the 
ready wit and playful fancy that character- 
ized all her writings. These qualities she 
seems to have inherited from no stranger, 
as her father, the Rev. William Smith of 
Weymouth, was one of the most facetious 
of divines. It is said that when his eldest 
daughter, Mary, married Richard Cranch, 
he preached from Luke x. 42 : " And 
Mary hath chosen that good part, which 
shall not be taken away from her." Abi- 
gail also had her turn. Some of the aris- 



192 THROUGH COLOXIAL DOORWAYS. 

tocratic parishioners of Weymouth ob- 
jected to John Adams because he was the 
son of a small farmer and himself a lawyer, 
these two facts rendering him, they thought, 
ineligible to marry the minister's daughter, 
in whose veins flowed the bluest of New 
England blue blood. Mr. Smith accord- 
ingly favored his congregation with a dis- 
course on the text, " For John came neither 
eating bread nor drinking wine ; and ye 
say, He hath a devil," the latter clause 
having reference to the groom's profession, 
the law, which was not then held in much 
repute in New England, 

In a letter written by Miss Smith, from 
her village home, to John Adams, who was 
undergoing the process of inoculation for 
small-pox in Boston, she says, — 

" By the time you receive this I hope from experience 
that you will be able to say that the distemper is but a 
trifle. Think you I would not endure a trifle for the 
pleasure of seeing you ? Yes, were it ten times that 
trifle, I would. But my own inclinations must not be 
followed. I hope you smoke your letters well before 
you deliver them. Mamma is so fearful lest I catch the 
distemper, that she hardly ever thinks the letters are 
sufficiently purified. Did you never rob a bird's nest ? 



A BUNDLE OF OLD LOVE LETTERS. 1 93 

Do you remember how the poor birds would fly round 
and round, fearful to come nigh, yet not know how to 
leave the place? Just so they say I hover round Tom 
whilst he is smoking my letters." 

It is to be regretted that John Adams's 
answers to these letters are not preserved : 
they were probably burned up by the 
anxious mamma. 

All Abigail's letters are love-letters in 
their tone of earnest devotion, whether 
written before or after marriage. With 
the details of the stir and excitement of 
military doings in and around Boston, the 
arrival of General Washington, the scanti- 
ness of provisions, and the cry for pins, 
which seem to have been as scarce as dia- 
monds, there abound such passages as 
this : 

" I wish I could come and see you. I never suffer 
myself to think you are about returning soon. Can it, 
will it be? May I ask — may I wish for it? When 

once I expect you But hush ! Do you know it is 

eleven o'clock at night ? . . . Pray don't let Bass forget 
my pins. We shall soon have no coffee, nor sugar, nor 
pepper here ; but whortleberries and milk we are not 
obliged to commerce for. I saw a letter of yours to 
Colonel Palmer by General Washington. I hope I have 
In 17 



194 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

one too. Good-night. With thoughts of thee I close 
my eyes. Angels guard and protect thee ; and may a 
safe return ere long bless thy Portia." 

It was always Diana or Portia, after the 
romantic fashion of those days ; and who 
would not rather have been Portia than 
plain Abigail to her lover ? 

A curious literary and historical fact, 
not generally known, is that General Bene- 
dict Arnold, who was notorious for his ex- 
travagance in public and private life, was 
extremely parsimonious in the matter of 
love-letters. By the infallible proof of an; 
old letter, recently discovered, it appears 
that he made the same amatory com- 
position do double duty, having used it 
in addressing at least two ladies of his 
choice. The letter was first employed in a 
proposal to Miss A., whom he did not 
marry, and with a few changes was used 
in offering himself to the beautiful Miss 
Peggy Shippen, of Philadelphia, whom he 
married in 1779. The letter, as addressed 
to Miss Shippen, is to be found in Arnold's 
" Life of Benedict Arnold," and is undoubt- 
edly a fine sample of a love-letter of a 



A BUNDLE OF OLD LOVE LETTERS. 1 95 

rather florid and bombastic style. If Miss 
Shippen had reahzed that her suitor had 
written to an earHer love that her *' charms 
had Hghted up a flame in his bosom which 
could never be extinguished, that her 
heavenly image was too dear to be ever 
effaced, and that Heaven's blessing should 
be implored for the idol and only wish of 
his soul," she might with some reason have 
hesitated to bestow her hand upon so trite 
a lover, who could find no fresh adjectives 
to match her charms. 

Of interesting foreign love-letters we 
might speak at length : of a manly and 
tender missive from the great Gustavus 
Adolphus to an early love ; of the Klop- 
stock letters, than which in the whole 
literature of love nothing more beautiful 
can be found ; of those of Prosper Merimee 
to his coquette Inconnue, with their irresisti- 
ble grace and brilliancy enhanced by the 
air of mystery that surrounds them ; or 
of the exquisite metrical love-letters that 
Elizabeth Barrett addressed to her " Most 
gracious singer of high poems." We have 
chosen rather to group together a few 



196 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Colonial love-letters, not only because most 
of them are unknown to the reading world, 
but also with a thought of drawing together 
in sympathy lovers of to-day with those 
of a past generation, not wigged, capped, 
and spectacled, as we are wont to picture 
our grandfathers and grandmothers, but 
with flowing locks and flashing eyes, armed 
cap-a-pic to enter in and conquer, or be 
conquered, in that fair realm where victor 
and vanquished rejoice to quit the lists 
hand clasped in hand. 





THE PHILADELPHIA 
DANCING ASSEMBLIES 

I ^/S has been said, we are wont to 
V <^/ ^^^^"^ °f ^^"^ esteemed progenitors 
of the Colonial and Revolutionary 
periods as performing valuable service in 
their day and generation, " being good," 
as some wit expresses it, " but not having 
a very good time." If our thoughts re- 
vert to the ladies of the last century, we 
picture them spending their days in spin- 
ning, knitting, or sewing, surrounded by 
their maid-servants, whom they are in- 
structing in these most useful arts, as the 
Mother of the Republic is described by so 
many who visited her at Mount Vernon, 
rather than in bedecking themselves for 
conquest in the gay world. The men of 
17* 197 



198 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

the period seem to have spent so much of 
their time at assemblies, not dancing as- 
sembHes, but those in which the laws of 
the Colonies were discussed, and land- 
claims, quit-rents, and other dry affairs 
settled, that we are surprised when a stray 
leaf from the note-book of some public 
man floats down to us containing such 
entries as the following : 

Diana for attendance 15^. 

I-'or candles /^I.lis. 

" snuffers 4s. 

" three dozen chairs £7 

" 200 limes 14J. 

" 18 pounds milk bisket gs. 

" 5 gallons rum and cask .... £2.y. 

" Musick £ilos. 

Learning that these items were among 
the expenses of an early Philadelphia 
Dancing Assembly, and that the wives 
and daughters of such ancient worthies as 
His Honor the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
Chief Justice Shippen, Thomas Hopkinson, 
and the Bond brothers wore rich imported 
silks, feathers, and flowers, and attended 
routs and balls, life in the old Provincial 
city is suddenly lit up with brighter hues, 



PHILADELPHIA DANXING ASSEMBLIES. 1 99 

and gay scenes take their place upon the 
canvas of the past. 

History has treated with such dignified 
silence this more frivolous side of Phila- 
delphia life that it is only from old manu- 
script letters and note-books, from such 
sprightly diaries as those of William Black, 
of Virginia, Sarah Eve, and Sally Wister, 
and from Watson and other annalists, that 
we learn that there was much gayety, as 
well as rare good living, in this city in the 
last century. As early as 1738 we read 
of a dancing class, instructed by Theobald 
Hackett, who engaged to teach 

•' all sorts of fashionable English and French dances, 
after the newest and politest manner practised in Lon- 
don, Dublin, and Paris, and to give to young ladies, 
gentlemen, and children the most graceful carriage in 
dancing and genteel behavior in company that can pos- 
sibly be given by any dancing-master whatever." 

Certainly the dancing-master's card is 
worded in the " politest manner," and his 
pupils in this city must have proved singu- 
larly apt in the Terpsichorean art, as the 
Philadelphia women were noted, at an 
early date, for their grace and social charm. 



200 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Later, one Kennet taught dancing and 
fencing, as did also John Ormsby, from 
London, " in the newest taste now prac- 
tised in Europe, at Mr. Foster's house, in 
Market Street, opposite the Horse and 
Dray." 

These announcements sound strangely 
un-Quakerlike, and in 1749 such alarming 
premonitory symptoms of gayety culmi- 
nated in a regular series of subscription 
balls, after the London fashion. The good 
Quakers naturally looked askance at such 
festivities ; consequently we find the names 
of no Pembertons, Logans, Fishers, Lloyds, 
Whartons, Coxes, Rawles, Norrises, Pen- 
ingtons, Emlens, Morrises, or Biddies on 
the original list of membership ; but here 
are M 'Calls, Francises, Burds, Shippens, 
Barclays, Wilcockses, Willings, Mcllvaines, 
Hamiltons, Aliens, Whites, and Conyng- 
hams. 

The clergy was represented in these 
early Assemblies by the Rev. Richard 
Peters, of London, who held high positions 
in the State as well as in the Church, and 
the Provincial Government by James Ham- 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 201 

ilton, the first American-born governor of 
Pennsylvania. A letter from Richard 
Peters to Thomas Penn shows what a 
warm interest the reverend gentleman took 
in the recently-formed Assembly. The 
letter is dated New Castle, May 3, 1749, 
and reads as follows : 

" By the Governor's encouragement there has been a 
very handsome Assembly once a fortnight at Andrew 
Hamilton's house and stores, wliich are tenanted by Mr. 
Inglis [and] make a set of rooms for such a purpose, 
& Consists of eighty ladies and as many gentlemen, 
one-half appearing every Assembly Night. Mr. Inglis 
had the conduct of the whole, and managed exceeding 
well. There happened a little mistake at the begin- 
ning, which at some other times might [have] produced 
disturbances. The Governor would have opened the 
Assembly with Mrs. Taylor, but she refused him, I 
suppose because he had not been to visit her. After 
Mrs. Taylor's refusal, two or three other ladies, out of 
Modesty and from no manner of ill design, excused 
themselves, so that the Governor was put a little to his 
shifts when Mrs. Willing, now Mrs. Mayoreas,* in a 
most Genteel Manner put herself into his way, and on 
the Governor seeing this instance, he" 

here there occurs something illegible, 
but it appears from what follows that the 

* Evidently intended for Mrs. Mayoress, as Charles 
Willing was elected Mayor of Piiiladelphia in 1748. 



202 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Governor danced tlie first minuet with this 
amiable lady, who showed her fine breed- 
ing by stepping in to prevent his being 
placed in an awkward position. 

Mr. Peters adds, in judicial form, that 
" Mrs. Taylor was neither blamed nor ex- 
cused nor commended, and so it went off", 
and every person during the continuance 
of the Assembly, which ended last week, 
was extremely cheerful and good natured." 

This Mrs. Abraham Taylor was the 
same Philadelphia Taylor who wrote a 
little earlier of the exceeding dulness of 
Provincial life, and the lack of all con- 
genial amusement, sighing the while for 
an " English Arcadia," which she thus 
quaintly described : " The hight of my 
ambition is to have us all live together in 
some pretty country place in a clean and 
genteel manner." 

It is pleasing to know that social life 
was beginning to come up to this lady's 
standard, even if her own manners did not 
rise with it. Her rude treatment of Gov- 
ernor Hamilton was due to the fact of her 
husband having some difficulty with the 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 203 

Provincial authorities, which she under- 
took to revenge upon the person who 
seems to have been the least to blame in 
the matter. 

The managers of the first Assembly were 
John Swift, a successful merchant, and 
Collector of the Port of Philadelphia ; 
John Wallace, son of a Scotch clergyman; 
John Inglis, whose name is not now repre- 
sented in Philadelphia, but from whom 
are descended Fishers, Cadwaladers, Coxes, 
and Kanes ; and Lynford Lardner, an Eng- 
lishman, who came here in 1 740 to hold 
a number of honorable positions in the 
Province, and, being addicted to learning 
as well as to gayety, was a director of the 
Library Company and an early member of 
the American Philosophical Society.* 

* Mr. Richard Fenn Lardner, a descendant of this 
Lynford Lardner, in 1878, owned the original list of the 
subscribers to the Assembly of 1749, and the manner in 
which this list and the rules for its government came 
into the possession of the Historical Society of Penn- 
sylvania is in itself an interesting bit of local history. 
The rules were the property of Mr. Charles Riche 
Hildeburn, a direct descendant of John Swift. He 
offered to give them to the society if the old list should 



204 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Among the subscribers to the first 
Dancing Assembly was Andrew Elliot, 
son of Sir Gilbert Elliot, then a young 
man recently arrived in the Province. 
Although he married into two Philadel- 
phia families, Mr. Elliot's associations were 
much with New York, where he was some- 
time Collector of Customs and Lieutenant- 
Governor. Mrs. Jauncey, Governor El- 
liot's daughter, writes from that city, in 
1783, of a ball at Head-quarters in honor 
of the Queen's birthday, which her father 
urged his wife to attend, yet we find him 
writing a few months later of Mrs. Elliot 
being in Philadelphia, and warmly received 
by the authorities there, " in high spirits 
and high frolic, with all her best clothes ; 
dancing with the French Minister, Finan- 
cier-General, Governor of the State, &c., 

also be forthcoming. Mr. Lardner signified his willing- 
ness to donate the list, and the formal presentation was 
made by the late President of the Historical Society, 
the Hon. John William Wallace. Thus, after a separa- 
tion of one hundred and thirty years, the old documents 
came together through the agency of descendants of 
three of the managers of the very Assembly to which 
they pertained. 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 20$ 

&c., all striving who shall show her most 
attention." This latter was after the pre- 
liminaries of peace had been signed be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States, 
when Governor Elliot's old friends, " Gov- 
ernor Dickinson, Bob. Morris," and other 
officials in the government, had begun to 
assume the more imposing proportions of 
winning figures. Both Mrs. Jauncey and 
Elizabeth Elliot married Englishmen. The 
latter, as Lady Cathcart, seems to have 
taken particular delight in dazzling the eyes 
of her American relatives with pictures of 
her own magnificent appearance in sable 
and diamonds assisting at court functions, 
where she is pleased to find herself on oc- 
casions the best dressed person in the com- 
pany.* 

Mrs. Jekyll, whose name is to be found 
on the early Assembly lists, and who is 
spoken of as " a lady of pre-eminent fashion 
and beauty," was a grand daughter of the 
first Edward Shippen. Her husband, John 



* Chronicles of the Plumsted Family, by Eugene 
Devereux. 

i8 



206 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Jekyll, was Collector of the Port of Bos- 
ton. In connection with this lady's gayety 
and social distinction, Watson gives some 
curious information with regard to the 
invitations in early times, which, he says, 
were printed upon common playing-cards, 
there being no blank cards in the country, 
none but playing-cards being imported for 
sale. " I have seen at least a variety of 
a dozen in number addressed to this same 
lady [Mrs. Jekyll]. One of them, from a 
leading gentleman of that day, contained 
on the back the glaring effigy of a queen 
of clubs !"* 

The first Assembly Balls were held in a 
large room at Hamilton's wharf, on Water 
Street, between Walnut and Dock. There 
seems to have been no hall capable of ac- 
commodating so many persons, and as 
Water Street skirted the court end of the 
town, it was a rather convenient locality 
in which to hold a ball. A lady of the 
olden time has left a record of going to 



* Some of these old playing-cards, with invitations to 
the Assembly printed on the backs, are still in the ]50sses- 
sion of a descendant of the first Edward Shippen. 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 20/ 

one of these balls at Hamilton's Stores in 
full dress and on horseback. What would 
the belles of that early time think if their 
Rosinantes could land them at the Acad- 
emy of Music for one of the great routs 
of our days ? The scene of enchantment 
now presented by the corridors, foyer, and 
supper-room would certainly bewilder the 
brains and dazzle the eyes of those beauti- 
ful great-grandmothers, for the decorations 
were not then elaborate, and the enter- 
tainment was simple, consisting, says one 
chronicler, " chiefly of something to drink." 

In 1772 the Assembly Balls seem to have 
been held at the Freemasons' Lodge, while 
it is evident from notices in the Pennsyl- 
vania Journal oi 1784-85, that they were 
later held at the City Tavern. In 1802 the 
managers gave notice to subscribers, in 
Poulson's Advertiser, that the first ball of 
the season would be held at Francis's 
Hotel, on Market Street. 

According to the early Assembly rules, 
tickets for strangers were to be had on 
application to the managers, and were to 
be paid for at the rate of seven shillings 



208 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

and sixpence, — this for gentlemen ; for 
ladies (such was the gallantry of the time) 
nothing was to be paid. This old regula- 
tion remained in force until quite recently, 
when, in consequence of the increasing 
number of guests from other cities and in 
simple justice to the subscribers, it was de- 
cided that guests of both sexes should be 
paid for at the same rates as residents. The 
old subscription ticket was forty shillings, 
which moderate sum was levied upon the 
gentleman, and of course included the lady 
who accompanied him. It covered the ex- 
penses of a series of entertainments given 
upon every Thursday evening from Janu- 
ary until May. The rule was that the ball 
" should commence at precisely six in the 
evening, and not, by any means, to exceed 
twelve the same night." Worthy and most 
moderate ancestors ! Your ball ended at 
the hour that the Assembly of our time 
begins, and the fair Belindas and Myrtillas 
who had graced the scene were sent off to 
their beds in time to get, if not beauty- 
sleep, certainly some hours of good sleep 
before dawn. This was a fortunate circum- 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 2O9 

stance, for those were days when mothers 
of families considered it one of the car- 
dinal sins to He abed in the morning, and 
if Belinda did not get her quantum of sleep 
at night there was little chance of making 
it up at high noon. 

Although it was one of the regulations 
of the Assembly that none were to be 
admitted without tickets, which were re- 
ceived at the door by one of the directors, 
there appears to have been some laxity in 
enforcing this regulation, as, in 1771, the 
following notice was inserted in the Penn- 
sylvania Journal : 

" The Assembly will he opened this evening, and as 
the receiving money at the door has been found ex- 
tremely inconvenient, the managers think it necessary 
to give the public notice that no person will be admitted 
without a ticket from the directors, which (through the 
application of a subscriber) may be had of either of the 
managers." 

As card-playing formed an important 
part in the entertainment of the time, 
rooms were provided for those who pre- 
ferred cards to the dance, furnished with 
fire, candles, tables, cards, etc. 

The dances were regulated according to 
18* 



2IO THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

very strict rules, " first come, first served." 
The ladies who arrived first had places in 
the first set ; the others were to be arranged 
in the order in which they arrived. The 
ladies were to draw for their places, which 
made a little pleasant excitement and raised 
a flutter of expectation in breasts mascu- 
line as well as feminine. The directors 
always had the right to reserve one place 
out of the set " to present to a stranger, if 
any, or any other lady, who was thereby 
entitled to lead up that set for the night." 

To break in upon the regular order of 
the dances seems to have been a serious 
offence, as, in a letter of 1782, we read of 
a Philadelphia belle, Miss Polly Riche, 
starting up a revolt against the established 
authorities by " standing up in a set not 
her own." By drawing the other ladies 
and gentlemen, who formed the cotillon, 
into the rebellion, she precipitated a rup- 
ture between the gentlemen, Mr. Moore 
and Colonel Armand, and the managers of 
the Assembly. 

Two Jewish names appear on this early 
list of 1749, Levy and Franks. Mr. Black, 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 211 

who was in Philadelphia in 1744, thus 
describes a Miss Levy, probably a sister 
of Samson Levy, whose name is enrolled 
among the subscribers to the Assembly : 

" In the evening, in company with Mr. Lewis and Mr. 
Littlepage, I went to Mr. Levy's, a Jew, and very Con- 
siderable Merch't ; he was a Widdower. And his Sister, 
Miss Hettie Levy, kept his House. We staid Tea, and 
was very agreeably Entertain'd by the Young Lady. 
She was of middle Stature, and very well made her 
Complection Black but very Comely, she had two Charm- 
ing eyes full of Fire and Rolling ; Eye Brows Black 
and well turn'd, with a Beautiful head of Hair, Coal 
Black which she wore a VVigg, waving in wanting curl- 
ing Ringletts in her Neck ; She was a lady of a great Deal 
of Wit, Join'd to a Good Understanding, full of Spirits, 
and of a Humor exceeding Jocose and Agreeable." 

Another lady who inspired even more 
ardent admiration in the susceptible breast 
of Mr. Black was Miss Mollie Stamper, 
who married William Bingham, and figures 
on the early lists of the Assembly as Mrs. 
Bingham.* Of this young lady's charms 
Mr. Black says, — 

* This Mrs. William Bingham was the mother of 
William Bingham, United States Senator from Pennsyl- 
vania in 1795, and consequently mother-in-law of the 
more celebrated Mrs. William Bingham. 



212 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

" I cannot say that she was a Regular Beauty, but she 
was Such that feW could find any Fault with what Dame 
Nature had done for her. . . . When I viewd her I 
thought all the Statues I ever beheld, was so much in- 
ferior to her in Beauty that she was more capable of 
Converting a man into a Statue, than of being Imitated 
by the Greatest Master of that Art, & I surely had as 
much delight in Surveying her as the Organs of Sight 
are capable of conveying to the Soul." 

Few names were better known in the old- 
time social life than that of Franks. David 
Franks was a brother of Phi la Franks, 
afterwards Mrs. Oliver De Lancey, and 
father of Rebecca Franks, who was a 
reigning belle during the British occupa- 
tion of Philadelphia, when General Howe 
was in the habit of tying his horse before 
David Franks's house and going in to have 
a chat with the ladies, and probably to 
enjoy a laugh at some of Miss Rebecca's 
spirited sallies. Although the beautiful 
Jewess shared the honors of belledom with 
fair Willings and Shippens, no person 
seems to have disputed her title to be con- 
sidered the wit of the day among woman- 
kind. Abigail Franks, who became Mrs. 
Andrew Hamilton, was another daughter 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 2I3 

of David Franks. It was to this sister in 
Philadelphia that Miss Rebecca wrote a 
long gossipy letter from New York in 1781, 
in which she contrasted the manners of the 
belles of that city and her own very much 
to the advantage of those of the latter 
place, always excepting the Van Horns, 
with whom she is staying, and whom she 
describes as most attractive, Miss Kitty 
Van Horn much resembling the greatly 
admired Mrs. Galloway. 

" By the way," she writes, " few New York ladies 
know how to entertain company in their own houses, 
unless they introduce the card-table. Except this family, 
who are remarkable for their good sense and ease, I 
don't know a woman or girl that can chat above half 
an hour, and that on the form of a cap, the color of a 
ribbon, or the set of a hoop, stay, or jupon. I will do 
our ladies, that is in Philadelphia, the justice to say they 
have more cleverness in the turn of an eye than the New 
York girls have in their whole composition. With what 
ease have I seen a Chew, a Penn, Oswald, Allen, and 
a thousand others entertain a large circle of both sexes, 
and the conversation, without the aid of cards, not flag 
or seem in the least strained or stupid." * 

* From manuscript letter in possession of the Histori- 
cal Society of Pennsylvania. 



214 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

In Mr. Joseph Shippen's " Lines Written 
in an Assembly Room" we find a graceful 
picture of the beauties of the ante-Rev^olu- 
tionary period, " Fair, charming Swift," 
the eldest daughter of John Swift, who after- 
wards became Mrs. Livingston ; " lovely 
White," a sister of Bishop White, who, 
as Mrs. Robert Morris, was the chosen 
friend of Mrs. Washington while in Phila- 
delphia ; " sweet, smiling, fair M'Call ;" 
Katharine Inglis ; Polly Franks, an elder 
daughter of David Franks ; Sally Coxe, 
who married Andrew Allen, the loyalist ; 
and Chews so fair that Mr. Shippen cannot 
decide which is the fairer. Two of these 
bewildering sisters, Mary and Elizabeth 
Chew, married respectively Alexander 
Wilcocks and Edward Tilghman. An- 
other poet, of a period a little later than 
this, happening to pick up a knot of 
ribbon dropped by Miss Chew on the 
ball-room floor, thus descants upon her 
charms : 



If I mistake not — 'tis the accomplish'd Chew, 
To whom this ornamental bow is due ; 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 215 

Its taste like hers, so neat, so void of art — 

Just as her mind and gentle as her heart. 

I haste to send it — to resume its place, 

For beaux should sorrow o'er a bow's disgrace." 

It does not appear to have taken great in- 
spirations to set the muse to rhyming in 
those days. Mr. John Swanwick seems 
always to have found his prompt to obey 
his call, and whether he is disappointed in 
a walk with Miss Markoe, or whether he 
takes such a walk ; whether it is Miss 
Meredith's canary-bird that dies or the 
great astronomer David Rittenhouse, all 
alike give wings to his Pegasus. He lends 
Miss Abby Willing his Biographical Dic- 
tionary, and with it encloses a dozen verses 
or more on those inscribed in this " splen- 
did roll of fame." Another occasion of 
poetic inspiration is when tears are ob- 
served to stream down a young lady's 
cheek on listening to a sermon from the 
Rev. William White. Must it not have 
been delightful to possess such a fancy ? 

As early as 1765 some of the good old 
Quaker names are to be found on the 
Assembly lists, as Mifflin, Fishbourne, 



2l6 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Dickinson, Galloway, Nixon, Powell, and 
Cadvvalader, the latter family being, like 
the Ingersolls, Montgomerys, Sergeants, 
Tilghmans, Wisters, and Markoes, among 
later arrivals in Philadelphia from other 
States or from abroad. Margaret Cadwal- 
ader married Samuel Meredith, first Treas- 
urer of the United States, while her elder 
sister Polly became the wife of Philemon 
Dickinson, from Crosia-dore, Maryland, a 
brother of John Dickinson, himself dis- 
tinguished as a soldier and statesman, 
while General John Cadwalader carried 
off one of the Meschianza belles, Miss Wil- 
helmina Bond.* Among names upon 
later Assembly lists, early and late, are 
those of Clymer, Hazlehurst, Evans, Burd, 
Lewis, McMurtrie, McPherson, Sims, Ross, 
Watmough, Biddle, Wharton, Meade, etc., 
while in that of 1765 there is a curious 
record of " Miss Allen, alias Gov^erness," 
which evidently refers to Ann Allen, who 
married Governor John Penn, a grandson 



* Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania, by Charles 
P. Keith. 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 21/ 

of the Proprietary. Of this fair lady the 
ever-ready Swanwick sings, — 

" When youthful Allen of majestic mien 
Seems as she moves of every beauty queen — 
And by refinements of a polish'd mind, 
To decorate a throne design'd." 

The regular Assembly balls seem to 
have been discontinued during the War 
of the Revolution, although most of this 
time there was no lack of gayety in Phila- 
delphia, especially in Tory circles, as is 
shown by contemporaneous letters. Miss 
Franks writes to Mrs. William Paca * in 
1778, while the British were in possession 
of the city, — 

" You can have no idea of the life of continued 
amusement I live in. I can scarce have a moment to 
myself. I have stole this while everybody is retired to 
dress for dinner. I am but just come from under Mr. 
J. Black's hands and most elegantly am I dressed for a 



* This letter was forwarded by Edward Tilghman, 
who was " out on his parole," with the gauze handker- 
chiefs, ribbons, etc., to Mrs. Paca, bom Anne Harrison, 
the second wife of William Paca, of Wye Island, 
Maryland, who was a delegate to Congress. (Pennsyl- 
vania Magazine, vol. xvi. p. 216.) 
K 19 



2l8 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

ball this evening at Smith's where we have one every 
Thursday. You would not Know the room 'tis so much 
improv'd. 

" I wish to Heaven you were going with us this 
evening to judge for yourself. I spent Tuesday evening 
at Sir Wt" Howes where we had a concert and Dance. 
I asked his leave to send you a Handkerchief to show 
the fashions. He very politely gave me leave to send 
anything you wanted, tho' I told him you were a Dele- 
gate's Lady. . . . 

" The Dress is more ridiculous and pretty than any 
thing I ever saw — great quantity of different colored 
feathers on the head at a time besides a thousand other 
things. The Hair dress'd veiy high in the shape Miss 
Vining's was the night we returned from Smiths — the 
Hat we found in your Mother's Closet wou'd be of a 
proper size. I have an afternoon cap with one wing — 
the' I assure you I go less in the fashion than most of 
the Ladies — no being dress'd without a hoop. B. Bond 
makes her first appearance tonight at the rooms." 

In B. Bond we recognize one of the 
Meschianza belles, while the Miss Vining 
to whom Miss Franks refers w^as a Wil- 
mington girl, whose beauty, grace, and 
fluency in speaking their language made 
her a great favorite with the French offi- 
cers in America, w'ho wrote home so en- 
thusiastically of her charms that her name 
became known at the court of France, the 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES, 2 19 

queen herself expressing a desire to meet 
the famous American beauty.* 

"No loss for partners," the lively lady continues, 
" even I am engaged to seven different gentlemen for 
you must know 'tis a fix'd rule never to dance but 
two dances at a time with the same person. Oh how 
I wrsh Mr. P. wou'd let you come in for a week or 
two — tell him I'll answer for your being let to return. 
I know you are as fond of a gay life as myself — you'd 
have an opportunity of rakeing as much as you choose 
either at Plays, Balls, Concerts or Assemblys. I've been 
but 3 evenings alone since we mov'd to town. I begin 
now to be almost tired." f 

It is probably to the revival of the hoop 
about 1778, of which Miss Franks speaks, 
that some humorous verses refer, in which 
the hoop and anti-hoop factions are de- 
scribed as arraying themselves for battle 
upon the floor of the Assembly room. 
The anti-hoop party was under the leader- 
ship of Narcissa, who with her followers 
declared that it was their opinion 



* This story, on the authority of Thomas Jefferson, is 
related by Miss Elizabeth Montgomery in her " Remi- 
niscences of Wilmington." 

I Pennsylvania Magazine, vol. xvi. pp. 216, 217. 



220 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

" That unless 
They had it in their Power to dress 
As they thought proper, nought would be 
At last left to their Option free, 
And so concluded, one and all, 
Hoopless to go to the next Ball." 

The hoop party was conducted by Fri- 
beto, the Nash of the time, a miniature 
beau, who suggests to the mind Pope's 
dramatis persona; of the " Rape of the 
Lock :" 

" A gayly brilliant thing 
That sparkled in the shining ring. 
****•}{■* * 

This same Fribeto once was chose 
Director of the Belles and Beaux, 
When'er in full Assembly they 
Should meet to dance an hour away." 

Indeed, the scheme and treatment of this 
rhymed Bataille de Dames are evidently 
borrowed from Pope's brilHant satire, and 
some verses seem not unworthy the pen 
of Francis Hopkinson, as, for instance, a 
description of the two factions upon the 
Assembly night : 

" Here walks a Fair, from Head to toe 
As straight as ever she can go ; 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 221 

And here a Dame with wings so wide, 
Three Yards at least from side to side. 

" Hoops and no Hoops dividing stand 
In dread array on either Hand, 
Resolved to try th' important Cause 
By that Assembly's fixed Laws." 

In the conflict which ensues, Fi'ibeto is 
worsted by the slim damsels, and takes 
refuge under Melisinda's ample wing, from 
whose pocket he surveys the field of battle. 
Enraged by the impertinent popping up of 
the dandy's head from Melisinda's pocket, 
Narcissa aims a blow at him, which glances 
aside and falls upon the bosom of his pro- 
tectress, who starts up with . a cry of pain 
and makes her escape, leaving Fribeto 
prone upon the ball-room floor, a pitiable 
object. 

" One peal of laughter fills the place. 
The Hoops their Hero now despise, 
And view him with disdainful Eyes, 
And with one Voice at once agree 
To cry aloud for Liberty" — 

declaring 

" That Women still 
In dress at least should have their will." 



222 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

Upon which the humiliated Fribeto an- 
nounces, — 

" My office and my Right 
To govern, I resign this Night, 
Nor will I meddle should you come 
In greasy night Caps to this Room, 
Or sit in Rows in yonder Benches, 
As black with Dirt as Cynder-wenches." 

This important battle probably occurred 
after the British evacuation of the city, as 
Philadelphia gayety did not cease with the 
departure of the red-coats, an article of 
apparel that General Knox declared the 
American girls loved too well. Arnold's 
advent as Commandant, we know, was in- 
augurated by a series of festivities from 
which the Tory belles were not excluded. 
Indeed, when such a measure was con- 
templated in connection with a grand ball 
to be given to the French and American 
officers, it was found impossible to make 
up the company without them, conse- 
quently they appeared in full feather, at 
this and other entertainments, it being al- 
leged by more than one authority that far 
from being slighted these loyalist ladies 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 223 

were given the preference over Whig belles. 
Among leading Tory women were Miss 
Polly Riche, her friend Miss Christian 
Amiel, the Bards, Bonds, Odells, Oswalds, 
and Cliftons. It has been whispered that 
Miss Amiel was the fair lady to whom 
General Arnold was engaged in Avriting 
amatory epistles before Miss Shippen's 
charms conquered the hero of many bat- 
tles. A note from the Commandant to 
Miss Riche is still extant, in which he 
thanks her for a picture conveyed to him, 
in language so guarded that no reading 
between the lines serves to reveal the 
original of the miniature, although there 
are those who shrewdly suspect that it 
was a picture of General Arnold, which, 
for reasons best known to herself. Miss 
Amiel returned to him through Miss Riche. 
Miss Amiel afterwards married Colonel 
Richard Armstrong who was in America 
with Major Simcoe's British Foot, while 
her friend Miss Riche became the wife of 
Charles Swift. It is evidently to her ap- 
proaching marriage that Miss White refers 
in a letter written in 1785, in which she 



2 24 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

relates the disasters that have befallen the 
wardrobes of several mutual friends, among 
them Miss B. Lawrence, who has lost 
" three elegant lisk robes, and seventy- 
yards of Lace, beside the rest of her 
Cloaths. There is," she adds, " no de- 
pendence on these stage boats, pray be 
careful how you send your wedding Cloaths 
up when you come to Town for it must be 
horribly mortifying to lose them." 

It is evident that the Assembly Balls 
were revived soon after peace was declared, 
and held occasionally, if not regularly, as 
Mrs. John Adams speaks of attending an 
Assembly while in Philadelphia during the 
administration of President Washington. 
The dancing she pronounces " very good 
and the company of the best kind," adding 
that the ladies are more beautiful than 
those she has seen at foreign courts. Mrs. 
Adams must have been subject to variable 
moods at this time, as she writes to her 
daughter one week of the dazzling bril- 
liancy of Mrs. Washington's drawing-room, 
concluding that Mrs. Bingham had given 
laws to the Philadelphia women in fashion 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 225 

and elegance, while in another letter she 
says of an Assembly Ball, "the room des- 
picable; the etiquette, — it was difficult to 
say where it was to be found. Indeed, it 
was not New York ; but you must not re- 
port this from me." This was probably 
written after one of their long drives to 
town over muddy roads, which made Bush 
Hill seem so undesirable a residence to the 
Vice-President and his wife. Mrs. Adams 
writes in more amiable mood upon another 
occasion, and is pleased to find " Mrs. 
Powell of all the ladies she has met the 
best informed, beside which she is friendly, 
affable, good, sprightly, and full of con- 
versation." This lady who combines so 
many charms is Mrs. Samuel Powel, born 
EHzabeth Willing, the aunt of Mrs. Bing- 
ham, who also came in for a large share of 
the New England lady's admiration, being 
included in her " constellation of beauties," 
with her sister Elizabeth, soon to become 
the wife of Major William Jackson, whose 
portrait represents one of the handsomest 
men of the time. The Chews of whom 
Mrs. Adams speaks are younger sisters of 
P 



226 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

the Meschianza belles, little Sophia, Juli- 
ana, and Maria, grown up to take their sis- 
ters' places. Old Chief Justice Benjamin 
Chew had a host of pretty daughters, and in 
the gay world of society, as in court circles, 
there is always a laudable disposition to 
hail the rising sun. Instead of Mrs. Bene- 
dict Arnold, her sisters, the Redmans, the 
Bonds, and Miss Wilhelmina Smith, who 
has gone off to Maryland with her husband 
Charles Goldsborough, we find a new bevy 
of beauties, Sally McKean, who afterwards 
married the Marquis de Yrujo, and whose 
languid beauty seemed made for a Southern 
court, Mrs. Walter Stewart, born Deborah 
McClenachan, Mrs. Henry Clymer, Mrs. 
Theodore Sedgwick, from Massachusetts, 
and Miss Wolcott, from Connecticut, whom 
New England gentlemen were wont to 
boast equal in beauty and grace to Mrs. 
Bingham. Mrs. Adams comments upon 
the gayety and prodigality of Philadelphia 
living at this period, as General Greene 
had done a little earlier, the latter having 
declared the luxury of Boston " an infant 
babe" to that of the Quaker City. INIuch 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 22/ 

of the extravagance which prevailed for 
some years in Philadelphia was an out- 
come of the speculation and the pursuit of 
private gain induced by the enormous infla- 
tion of the Continental currency. " Wealth 
thus easily acquired was as freely squan- 
dered," says Mr. F. D. Stone in his admira- 
ble paper on Philadelphia society during 
the period of the new tender, " and while 
luxuries were being enjoyed by one class 
of citizens, the expenses and burdens of 
others were greatly increased." In the 
diary of the moderate and abstemious 
Washington we read of a number of en- 
tertainments and numerous dinners at- 
tended by him at the Ingersolls', Morrises', 
Chews', Rosses', Willings', Hamiltons', and 
Binghams' ; at the latter place " I dined 
in great splendor," writes the President, 
who was well content with one dish of 
meat and one or two glasses of wine at 
his own table. Again, in a letter written 
from Philadelphia to General Wayne by a 
brother officer we read, — 

" Permit me to say a little of the dress, manners, and 
customs of the town's people. In respect to the first. 



228 THROUGH COLONIAL DOORWAYS. 

great alterations have taken place since I was last here. 
It is all gayety, and from what I can observe, every 
lady and gentleman endeavors to outdo the other in 
splendor and show. . . . The manner of entertaining 
in this place has likewise undergone its change. You 
cannot conceive anything more elegant than the present 
taste. You can hardly dine at a table but they present 
you with three courses, and each of them in the most 
elegant manner." 

Miss Sally McKean, in writing to a 
friend in New York of Mrs. Washington's 
first levee, says, — 

" You never could have such a drawing-room ; it was 
brilliant beyond anything you can imagine ; and though 
there was a great deal of extravagance, there was so 
much of Philadelphia taste in everything that it must be 
confessed the most delightful occasion of the kind ever 
known in this country." 

Some of the old names run down the 
Assembly list through all the years to our 
own time, as Chew, Shippen, M'Call, 
Hopkinson, Mcllvaine, White, Barclay, 
Cadwalader, Coxe, Lardner, and many 
more, while others have quite disappeared 
from Philadelphia society. There are no 
more Hamiltons, Oswalds, Cliftons, Plum- 
steds, Aliens, Swifts, Inglises, or Francises 



PHILADELPHIA DANCING ASSEMBLIES. 229 

to be found on the lists of to-day. Some 
of these families are no longer represented 
in the male line, while others have married 
and settled abroad, notably the Binghams, 
Aliens, Hamiltons, and Elliots. Into the 
social circles where they once held sway 
have come such Southern names as Ran- 
dolph, Byrd, Page, Robinson, Carter, 
Hunter, and Neilson from Virginia, and 
Tilghman, Cheston, Murray, and many 
other well-known names from that Eastern 
Shore of Maryland famed for its good 
cheer, and for its hospitable Colonial man- 
sions presided over by beautiful matrons. 




INDEX. 



Abercrombie, Dr. James, iig. 
Adams, John, ii, 66, 88, 130, 

148, 192. 
Adams, Mrs. John, 13, 16, 65, 

191, 224. 
Adams, John Quincy, 70, 125, 

167. 
Agassiz, Louis, 145. 
Agassiz, Mrs. Louis, 140. 
Alexander, General William, 

70. 
Allen, Andrew, 214. 
Allen, Ann, 216. 
Allinson, Edward P., 154. 
Alsop, Mary, 85. (Mrs. Rufus 

King.) 
American Philosophical So- 
ciety, 97-147- 
Amiel, Christian, 223. 
Andre, Major John, 26, 33, 44, 

52, 84. 
Armand, Colonel, 210. 
Armstrong, Colonel Richard, 

223. 
Arnold, General Benedict, 63, 

194, 223. 
Arnold, Mrs. Benedict, 44. 

(Peggy Shippen.) 
Atlee, Dr. W. F., 68. 
Aubrey, William, 184. 



Auchmuty, Miss, 38, 42. 
Auchmuty, Rev. Samuel, 56. 

B. 

Bache, Dr. Franklin, 174. 
Bache, Mrs. Richard, 12, 17, 

85. 
Barclay, 200, 228. 
Bard, 223. 

Barton, Dr. Benjamin S , 132. 
Bartram, John, 103, 104. 
Bartram, William, 104. 
Bayard, The Misses, 88. 
Beasley, Dr. Frederick, 167. 
Beckwith, Colonel, 168. 
Beekman, Colonel Henry, 85. 
Beekman, Mrs. James, 84. 
Biddle, Clement C, 167. 
Biddle, Nicholas, 117, 152. 
Bingham, William, 211. 
Bingham, William, United 

States Senator, 211 (note). 
Bingham, Mrs. William, 89, 92, 

224, 226. 
Binney, Horace, 173. 
Black, William, 199, 210. 
Bleecker, 82. 
Blended Rose, Ladies of the, 

33, 42. 
Bonaparte, Charles Lucien, 

139. 

2.^1 



232 



INDEX. 



Iionaparte, Joseph, 164. 
Bond, Becky, 42, 43, 218. 
Bond, Dr. Phineas, 103. 
Bond, Wilhelmina, 42, 216. 
Boudinot, Elias, 74. 
Bowers, Mrs. John M., 8. 
Breck, Samuel, 66, 152. 
Bunker's Hotel, 67. 
Burd, 200, 2x6. 
Burgoyne, General, 34. 
Burning Mountain, Ladies of 

the, 43. 
Burr, Aaron, 66, 131. 
Bush Hill, 225. 
Byrd, 229. 

c. 

Cadwalader, General John, 
216. 

Cadwalader, Margaret, 216. 

Cadwalader, Polly, 216. 

Calder, Sir Henry, 28, 49. 

Callowhill, Hannah, 178. (Han- 
nah Penn.) 

Canino, Prince de, 164, 168. 

Carey, Henry C, 123, 167. 

Carey, Mathew, 167. 

Carey Vespers, 123. 

Carter, 229 

Cathcart, Lady, 18, 19, 205. 

Cathcart, Lord, 42. 

Chapman, Dr. Nathaniel, 117, 

153- 
Chastellux, Marquis de, 84, 148. 
Cheston, 229. 
Cheves, Langdon, 173. 
Chew, Elizabeth, 214. 
Chew, Mary, 214. 
Chew, Peggy, 42, 49, 58. 
Chew, Sally, 43. 
Clarkson, 82. 



Clifton, Eleanor, 28, 29. 
Clinton, Governor George, 81. 
Clinton, Mrs. George, 92. 
Clinton, Sir Henry, 38, 61. 
Clymer, George, 155. 
Clymer, Mrs. Henry, 226. 
Coffin, Eleanor, 20. 
Colden, Dr. Cadwallader, 104 

105. 
Collins, Zacheus, 162. 
Conyngham, 200. 
Coxe, Sally, 214. 
Craig, Janet, 42, 56. 

D. 

Daschkof, Princess, 140, 142. 

Deane, Silas, 148. 

De Lancey, Mrs. Oliver, 212. 

De Peyster, 82. 

Dickinson, John, 103, 205, 216. 

Digby, Admiral Robert, 73. 

Draper, Sir William, 30. 

Drayton, Colonel, of South 

C:irolina, 125. 
Drinker, Hannah, 18. 
Duane, Mrs. James, 83, 88. 
Duer, Colonel William, 70. 
Duer, Lady Kitty, 69, 70, 83. 
Dulany, Daniel, 103. 
Du Ponceau, Peter S., 121-129, 

155, 162. 



Elliot, Governor Andrew, 73, 

204, 205. 
Elliot, Elizabeth, 205. 
Emlen, 200. 
Evans, 216. " 
Evans, Governor John, 184. 
Eve, Sarah, 18, 199. 



INDEX. 



23: 



F. 

Fishbourne, 215. 

Fisher, 200, 203. 

Fisher, Joshua Francis, 173. 

Foulke, Liddy, 10. 

Francis, Anne, 134. 

Francis, Dr. John W., 152. 

Francis, Sir Philip, 134-136 

Francis's Hotel, 207. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 12, 17. 106. 
112, 114, 120, 140 ; founder of 
Philosophical Society, 97- 
102. 

Franklin, Samuel, 70. 

Franklin, Sarah, 71. (Mrs. 
Richard Bache.) 

Franklin, Walter, house of. 
New York residence of Gen- 
eral Washington, 67-70. 

Franks, Abigail, 212. 

Franks, David, 212. 

Franks, Phila, 212. 

Franks, Polly, 214. 

Franks, Rebecca, 14, 38, 43, 59- 
61, 213, 219 

Fraser, Caroline, 164. 

Furness, Dr. William H., 124. 



Gallatin, Albert, 125. 
Galloway, Mrs., 213. 
Gerry, Elbridge, 91. 
Gerry, Mrs. Elbridge, 86. 
Gliddon, George Robins, 125. 
Goldsborough, Charles, 57. 226. 
Greene, General Nathaniel, 8, 

226. 
Griffin, Lady Christiana, 85. 
Griffin, Cyrus, 85, 90. 
Griffith, Hannah, 54. 



Griffils, Dr. Samuel Powel, 154. 
Grouchy, Marquis de, 164. 

H. 

Haines, Reuben, 162. 
Hale, Captain Nathan, 84. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 66, 91. 
Hamilton, IMrs. Alexander, 85. 
Hamilton, Andrew, 201. 
Hamilton, Mrs. Andrew, 212. 
Hamilton, Governor James, 200. 
Hamilton's Wharf, 206. 
Hancock, John, 11. 
Harrison, Anne, 217. 
Hays, Dr. Isaac, 174. 
Hazlehurst, 216. 
Heckewelder, John, 129, 155. 
Helm, Mary, 186, 190. 
Helvetius, Madame, 16, 17. 
Hildeburn, Charles Riche, 203. 
Hopkinson, Francis, 103, 120, 

220. 
Hopkinson House, 21. 
Hopkinson, Joseph, 152, 167. 
Hopkinson, Thomas, 105, 198. 
Hosack, Dr., 151. 
Howard, Colonel John Eager, 

59- 
Howe, Admiral Lord Richard, 

38, 48, 55, 71. 
Howe, General Sir William, 24, 

28, 41, 48, 55. 218. 
Humboldt, Baron von, 133, 151. 
Hunter, 229 
Huntington, Daniel, 91. 

I. 

IngersoU, Bertha, 76. 
Ingersoll, Charles J., 143, 166. 
IngersoU, Jared, 129. 



20* 



234 



INDEX, 



Inglis, John, 203. 
Inglis, Katharine, 214. 
Izard, Mrs. Ralph, 85. 



Jackson, Major William, 225. 
James, Dr. Thomas C, 162, 

174- 
Jauncey, Mrs., ig, 204, 205. 
Jay, John, 90, 91. 
Jay, Mrs. John, 13, 90,92, 93. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 18, 75, iii, 

124, 128. 
Jelcyll, John, 206. 
Johnson, Lady, 62. (Rebecca 

Franks.) 
Johnson, Sir Henry, 60, 62. 
Junto, 100, loi, 109. 

K. 

Kane, Judge, 173. 
Keach, Rev. Elias, 186-191. 
Keteletas, Jane, 84. 
Keyes, Miss, 18. 
King, Rufus, 91. 
King, Mrs. Rufus, 92. 
Kinnersley, Ebenezer, io5. 
Kissam, 82. 

Knight's Wharf, 28, 38, 39. 
Knox, General, 66, 222. 
Knox, Mrs. General, 77, 92. 
Knyphausen, General, 38. 
Kuhn, Dr. Adam, 103, 153. 



Lafayette, Marquis de, 142, 144. 
Lardner, Lynford, 203. 
Lardner, Richard Penn, 203, 

204. 
Lawrence, Becky, 223. 



Lawrence, Colonel Elisha, 58. 
Lea, Dr. Isaac, 174. 
Lea, Henry C., 174. 
Leather Apron Society, 100. 
Lee, General Charles, 61. 
Ltidy, Joseph, 145. 
Levy, Hetlie, 211. 
Levy, Samson, 211. 
Lewis, Lawrence, Jr., 44, 
Lewis, Morgan, 83. 
Lewis, William D., 172. 
Livingston, Mrs. Robert R., 

85. 
Livingston, Mrs. Walter, 92. 
Lloyd, 200. 
Logan, Deborah, 9. 
Logan, James, 183, 184. 
Lynch, Mrs. Dominick, 83. 

M. 

Macomb's House occupied by 
President Washington, 67. 

Madison, James, 12, 75, 130, 
165. 

Marbois, Barbe-, 75. 

Markoe, Miss, 94. 215. 

Maxwell, Mrs. James Homer, 

83. 
M'Call, 200, 214, 228. 
Mcllvaine, 200, 228. 
McKean, Henrj' Pratt, iii. 
McKean, Sally, 77, 226, 228. 
McLane, Captain Allan, 51. 
McMaster, John Bach, 99. 
McMichael, Morton, 172. 
McMurtrie, 216. 
McPherson, 216. 
Meade, 216. 

Meigs, Dr. Charles D. , 174. 
Meredith, Samuel, 216. 



INDEX. 



235 



Meredith, William M., 173. 
Meschianza, 23-64. 
Michaux, Andre, 107, 115. 
Mifflin, Elizabeth, 149. 
IMifflin, John, 149. 
Mitchell, Dr. John K., 174. 
Mitchell, Maria, 139. 
Montgomery, 82, 216. 
More, Chief Justice Nicholas, 

190. 
Morgan, Dr. John, 19. 
IMorgan, Mrs. John, 18. 
Morray, Humphrey, 154. 
Morris, Robert, 91, 205. 
Morris, Mrs. Robert, 13,63,91, 

214. 
Moniresor, Colonel, 49, 56. 
Moustier, Comte de, 74, 75, 8i. 

N. 

Neilsfin, 229. 

New York Balls and Recep- 
tions, 65-96. 
Nixon, 216. 
Norris, Deborah, 10. 



Odell, 223. 
O'Hara, Colonel, 49. 
Ord, George, 117, 118, 119. 
Osgood, Samuel, 69. 
Oswald, 213, 223. 



Paca, Mrs. William, 217. 
Page, 229. 

Parton, James, 99, 106, 128. 
Patterson, Dr. Robert, 129. 
Patterson, Dr. Robert M., 100, 
loi, 162, 173. 



Peale, Charles Willson, iii, 
136-139. 

Peale, Franklin, 129, 137. 

Pegg's Run, 29. 

Pemberton, 200. 

Penington, Edward, 60. 

Penn, Governor John, 216. 

Pcnn, Hannah, 183. 

Penn, Letitia, 181, 1S4. 

Penn, Thomas, 201. 

Penn, William, 178, 181. 

Penn, William, Jr., 180. 

Penrose, Boies, 154. 

Peter, William, 170. 

Peters, Judge Richard, 11, 117, 
129, 166. 

Peters, Richard, 200-202. 

Philadelphia Dancing Assem- 
blies, 197-229. 

Philipse, 82. 

Philipse, Miss, 73. 

Plumsted, 229. 

Pool's Bridge, 28, 39. 

Powel, Mrs. Samuel, 225. 

Priestley, Rev. Joseph, ii6, 
117. 

Provoost, Mrs. Samuel, 83. 

R. 

Randolph, 229. 
Rawdon, Lord, 38, 71, 72. 
Rawle, William, 122, 155. 
Read, Sarah, 185. 
Redman, Dr. John, 57. 
Redman, Nancy, 42. 
Redman, Rebecca, 43, 57, 58. 
Reed, William B., 170. 
Riche, Polly, 210, 223. 
Rittenhouse, David, 112, 131, 



236 



INDEX. 



Roberdeau, i8. 
Robinson, Moncure, 174. 
Robinson, Mrs. William T., 

67-69. 
Ross, 216, 227. 
Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 129. 132, 

153. 158. 
Rutherfurd, 82. 



Saxe-Weimar, Duke of, 165, 

167. 
Scliuyler, Madame Philip, 18. 
Schweinitz, Rev. Lewis D. de, 

130. 
Sedgwick, Mrs. Theodore, 226. 
Sergeant, John, 173. 
Serra, Abbe Correa da, 117, 

138, 152. 
Shewell, Betty, 120. (Mrs. Ben- 
jamin West.) 
Shippen, Chief Justice Edward, 

44, 205. 
Shippen, Joseph, 49, 214. 
Shippen, Peggy, 33, 42, 63, 194, 

223. 
Shippen, William, 154. 
Shipton, Betty, 19. 
Short, William, 117, 165. 
Simcoe, Major, 223. 
Sims, 216. 
Smith, Abigail, 191. (Mrs. 

John Adams.) 
Smith, Wilhelmina, 43, 56,226. 
Smythe, Hon. Lionel, 74. 
Sneyd, Honora, 30. 
Somerville, Mary, 139. 
Southgate, Eliza, 14, 18, 20. 
Sparks, Jared. 100. 
Stamper, MoUie, 211. 



State in Schuylkill, 11. 
Steuben, Baron, 81. 
Steward, Lieutenant-Colonel 
, Jack, 61. 

Stewart, Mrs. Walter, 226. 
Stirling, Lady, 83. 
Sloddert, Major, 9. 
Stone, Colonel William Leet, 

79- 
Strickland, William, 117. 
Swanwick, John M. P., 94, 

215. 
Swift, Charles, 223. 
Swift, John, 203, 214. 

T. 

Tarleton, Major, 56. 

Taylor, Mrs. Abraham, 201, 

202. 
Temple, Lady, 70, 84. 
Temple, Sir John, 84. 
Thackeray, William M., 170. 
Tilghman, Chief Justice, 129, 

134. 155, 162, 167. 
Tilghman, Edward, 214, 217. 
Tilghman, Richard, 135, 136. 
Twisleton, Hon. Edward, 135. 
Tyson, Job R., 161. 



Van Cortland, 82. 

Van Horn, Kitty, 213. 

Van Rensselaer, 82. 

Van Zandt, Catharine, 83. 

Vaughan, Keiijamin, ^L D., 

126. 
Vaughan, Mr. John, 117, 123, 

125, 127, 160. 
Vaughan, Samuel, 126. 



INDEX. 



237 



Vaux, Roberts, 167. 
Verplaiick, 82. 
Vining, Miss, 218. 

W. 

Wallace, John, 203, 204. 
Walnut Grove, 31, 32. (Mes- 

chianza House.) 
Walsh, Robert, LL.D., 117, 

152, 173- 
Ware, Rev. William, 125. 
Washington, George, 8, 66, 87, 

124. 
Washington, Martha, 65, 86, 

91, 224. 
Watmough, 216. 
Watson, Joseph, 35, 166, 199. 
Watts, Lady Mary, 83. 
Wayne, General Anthony, 63, 

227. 
West, Benjamin, 103, 120. 
Wharton, Joseph, Sr., 30-32. 



Wharton, Mayor Robert, 118. 
Wharton, Thomas Isaac, 173. 
White, Bishop, 119, 120, 214. 
White, Nancy, 42. 
Wilcocks, Alexander, 214. 
Willing, Abby, 215. 
Willing, Elizabeth, 225. 
Willing, Mrs. Charles, 201. 
Wistar or Wister, 157. 

Wistar, Dr. Caspar, 117, 129, 
149, 157, 159, 161. 

Wistar, Mrs. Caspar, 150. 

Wistar, Kitty, 67. 

Wistar Parties, 147-176. 

Wister, Sally, 9, 14. i99- 

Wolcott, Miss, 226. 

Wood, Dr. George B., 174. 

Wrottesley, John, 49. 

Wiister, Katerina, 157. 

Y. 

Yates, Chief Justice, 83. 




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